I walked in

Endless sleep.

My smile flicked on

My tears damned

To be held back.

Dazed and confused.

Could no one see?

Did no one look

Or ask?

Or seek to wake me up.

I walked in endless sleep

Not seeing the drop

As the cliff edge

Approached.

And only the fall

Broke my sleep

And

Woke me up

At last.

I close my eyes, fall asleep and awaken...elsewhere. I feel cool air, warm breath, soft kisses, pounding heart. I touch the door, a window, your hand. I speak to faces I recognize but do not really know. I feel emotions - anger, fear, joy, sorrow...love. I visit myriad places I know but do not recognize... Often, I am someone else, see through different eyes, speak with another's voice. Always I awaken wondering: Am I awake now, or am I asleep?

On the nightstand, at the bottom of a glass, the sliced left lemon caught my attention right before sleep. The curve in the rind shaped like a boat drew me down with the ship and I lit a match even before I noticed the pack of Marlboro's with my name on it.

"But I don't smoke!" I said sitting on a pit.

"You do now." Spit the lemon.

Chain smoking into nicotine induced intoxication, I fell overboard ready to drown.

When slumber’s sliced like steak and

knife

Lying on dream’s platter

Day’s eyes of round and round bleed night

White sheets, butchered with splatter

Chewing fat encumbers life

Salt-wounds kosher the soul

Searing, masticating strife,

Asleep on beds of coal

Morning meets one satisfied

A cut above the rest

When anger, flanking heart and mind,

Hangs, frozen, un-ingest’

i dont think we all go

to the same place

its somewhere only you know,

your own space.

it's perfect.

peace after a long day.

no conflict.

somewhere you want to stay

somewhere you wish to be

forever and ever

because you are happy

and no place is better

The frustration of a scientific background emerges in simple, possibly abstract, but often mundane questions. Where do I go when I sleep? Well, there are 4 stages of sleep and REM cycles are when and where we dream.

I can rattle on about the practical, objective neurological information. Sometimes I do, at parties.

I feel safest when I sleep because wherever I am eludes science. There's only so much data that can be generated to denote we don't know much.

When I drift off into the silent darkness of the night, I encounter the essence of mankind in my mind. I go to a world engulfed with pure imagination with no boundaries, just infinite space to build. But as I build, I soon get lost in the reality of it all and encounter creature and worlds not of my own. Monsters and danger follows me wherever I go, and it is not until I wake up that I am safe.

I yearn for those moments when I fall to sleep. I wake up in a place, where you are still here. Perhaps it is my soul visiting other worlds'. At least I entertain the idea in my mind. Though when I wake, I find my arms begging to hold you. If only I could rest for a few more minutes...