Night Battle

One's daytime nightmare
like the boughs of a shadowless tree
leave little of light's residue

Reaching day's end
thoughts entreat gathering dusk
knowing bedding down invites
but a memory-tortured night

Attempting sleep is to wait
outlive despair
defy the heart as fossil
one's paths as molten
one's feet as stone

Even as love weakens nightmares
it too is but a kindly foil
its caress like a lozenge thinning on reality's tongue

All-knowing is what Lost-knowing does
where doubt breeds giant clouds
dripping false teardrop-smiles
small as rain
and as many
flooding nowhere
and yet everywhere

and Gentleness...

Perhaps it too succumbs
the lonely made no longer lonely
finding solace conserved in shadow
becoming a whispering shade
awaiting us to join

Dreams seem exiled away from us
we who in that childhood game
shout fearing no one's listening to hear

Here I Am!