We have now entered the birds-chirping-all-night season.
—Terri Guillemets
sleep
At two-fifty-nine
Prayer to the middle-of-the-night gods:
please let me sleep
thank you for the beautiful moon
and winter silence
but please let me fall back to sleep—
no offense.
Amen.
—Terri Guillemets
Insomnia ticking
three o’clock —
anxiety, regret
in the depths of worry
swept away in the
whirlwind of nothing —
a horrible nothing
—Terri Guillemets
blackout poetry created from Octave Mirbeau, The Diary of a Chambermaid, 1891–1900,
Can’t freakin’ sleep
Insomnia is invisible
but hard as concrete.
—Terri Guillemets
blackout poetry created from Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, 1996, Henry Holt paperback, First Owl Books 1997 edition,
Summer-nap
I drifted into a summer-nap
under the hot shade of July
serenaded by a cicadae lullaby
to drowsy-warm dreams
of distant thunder…
—Terri Guillemets
Sweet sleep
A day without a nap is like a cupcake without frosting.
—Terri Guillemets
Loudness in the quiet
A clock is ticking
in my living room —
I never even noticed
that it makes noise;
my mind is ticking,
my heart is ticking.
Everything quiet
is audible at 3 a.m.
—Terri Guillemets
Hiding from the sleep cops
I’ve had such bad insomnia the sleep cops have issued a warrant for my rest.
—Terri Guillemets
Insomniacaholic
I’m an insomniacaholic,
If there is such a thing;
Well, I know there is —
I am one, and their king!
—Terri Guillemets