Although the flow of traffic has ceased
and the basement temperature-
on this frosty February night-
mixed with the darkness provides a perfect setting.
even after a bottle of red wine
by candlelight,
it makes no difference whether
I lie on my back
or curl up in a foetus position,
I still cannot sleep.
It’s as if someone’s inside my head
zapping frantically, with a remote control
from one image to another.
a kind of slide-show of hearts.
what else is there to do but
leave the bed, light a cigarette and
open the window.
outside the headlights from a passing car
filter through the trees, illuminating myself
and a young couple, arm in arm on this
Saint Valentine’s Day night.
after a long drag on my cigarette, I blow
out a smoke ring, and imagine
that it,s a heart, my heart.
now freed from its cage, and
carried by a slight zephyr,
I watch it float over the tenements and tree tops
out into the open range, amidst all the other hearts,
on this Saint Valentine’s Day night.
the crepe paper ones, the flowered ones,
the gift card ones and the longing ones.
where they all mingle together
in an unpredictable arena,
vulnerable, but propped up on their tripods,
hoping for the thumbs up from the crowd.
and the wink of an eye from cupid.
|
Submission Name: Insomnia
