The Back of My Mind (Poetry)

I have to prowl the night

I have to prowl the night

prowl muted hours of day without the light that erodes

my coveted night,

for the jewels of sleepless dreaming.

I have to stalk the sleeping lambs,

soft breath, sweet rest,

as they slumber on loving mother’s breast in bed.

She sings a soothing lullaby while I,

I absorb their darling dreams.

I have to lurk around

in muck, searching for a soundless sound,

a lookless look, a wordless word unheard,

unvoiced, unfelt, untouched, unloved, undone, unsung, unfound.

I have to creep the deep of night,

elude sleep, procure insight,

allure the sleeping psyche’s wisdom out,

sweep webs and webs of doubt about my life

into the intensity of night,

fight the futile wakening of each dawn

that cannot satiate this tuneless song.