Awake

by Vincent von Strauss
(United States)

Make your grave
That’s not so difficult, is it?
Pull a comforter over the coffin
Maybe an electric blanket

Now 7 AM. That’s no hour to get to bed
Time wears thin any sense of constrained risk

Now 10 AM and I think I’ll
Stare at the back of my eyelids

Now noon and
The robins dive
By the air conditioner

Lie and lie
To yourself

Day or night or
Whenever

I don’t give a damn

Between the lights
On broken marrow

I succumb to the ardent bliss of
Nothing at all