Sleepless

Last night I didn’t get to sleep at all. No, no
I lay awake and watched until the morning light
Watched away the darkness of the lonely night
Last night I didn’t get to sleep
Didn’t get to sleep at all.”
- fr. lyrics of:  Last Night I Didn’t Get to Sleep at All,
by Fifth Dimension

I thought I heard you come in the rustling leaves.

SLEEPLESS
(Sleep is the antidote to a toxin called “insomnia”.)

dawn has arrived but still, you are nowhere.

i thought I heard you come in the rustling leaves.
i perceived you among the shadows and for a while,
i felt you with the crickets’ lullaby, amidst the mist.

why not come to me now?
are you caught in a traffic jam among the stars?
or have you eloped with the flirting moon?

where are you? Where are you? Where are you?
how I miss the nocturnal succor of your arms
that cuddle me to oblivion.
i long for your soundless caress that seals
empty spaces between my body and my soul.

you bequeath the stupor of wine.
you bestow the comfort of repose.
you bring the stillness of sea beds.
you rest my restlessness!

it is you
who take me
from here-within to there-without.

it is you
who carry me
from now-nowhere to then-somewhere.

with you,
i can dream of sunset without sky;
forest without trees; ocean without water;
see her smile without her lips
and feel her touch without her hand.

with you,
i can bring her back,
so that she and I can shuttle freely
between yesterday and tomorrow.

where are you Sleep, my dear Sleep?

ah, Sleep,
elusive Sleep,
only you can make me forget –

for her last breath had left,
and took her away from me!

- sleep
is between
yesterday and tomorrow.

© 2001 Chito L. Aguilar

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