SLEEP

Slipping through my fingers like so much water,
Indecisively running in one ear then out the other,
Distorting my thoughts with twisted hands,
Playing tricks on my muddled imagination,
Taunting and teasing me in its phantasmal form,
Tearing at my nerves with raking claws,
Then smothering me in my moment of despair.

~Stacy Clifford
  © 2000