Sleepless

Close your eyes and sleep.
Awake many nights tonight.
The price you pay for a cup of coffee
soars. Hot chocolate
doesn’t really work but you do it
anyway.
Silence becomes the whir of my fan
the hum of air-conditioners
across the street.
Sleepless I persist.
A single light papers
where do I find them all?
Scratches telling on me
some lines crossed out
others circled.
Days crowded with things to do
that never get done.
Addition problems angling across
the corners.
Sleep the great sleep
but I can’t not while the computer’s running
its little flashing lights
and clean out buttons
terrorize me. The games multiply.
They’re all sleeping now
readying to get off to another
ah shit day at the office.
Tensions multiply break
die in the night for awhile
resume the next day
And I pose before the mirror
above my desk under my papers
hot chocolate in hand
sleepless.