Sleep Chaser

Sleep Chaser

Running through the dark waves behind my eyelids

I search for dreams in my stormy brain

My body lists endlessly

heaving itself into every direction

The more I search

the farther my goal

The longer the hunt

the shorter my prize’s duration

There are always the drugs to cheat and win

but they hang on my shoulders long after the victory

I race that which does not move

My sanity stays afloat only because I can occasionally attain it

But too often it alludes me

seeming to laugh at my tired face

All I want is for my rational to go blank

For a few hours to forget to think

But when the time has come

the tide slows me down once more

and I look again for that formless thing

which embraces me in a warm bath of rest

February 27, 1994

Tressa Lee Breen