The man who went to bed last night,
Is not the man who woke up in the same bed this morning.
The face in the mirror is similar, but
There is a shadow over it.
The eyes lack focus for they gaze long away,
To a place that is not a place, that
Cannot be seen by anyone else.
The man eats the same meals and
Performs the same menial tasks.
He says all the things he is expected to say,
Despite feeling nothing when he says them.
The man who went to bed last night felt things.
He found hope in the tiniest moments,
He looked for the bright spot in the darkest times.
He may have seemed cynical but he was secretly, embarrassingly,
A hopeless romantic burdened with the cruel presence
Of realism.
He was a fool.
The man who awoke knows this because
He remembers all of it as if having interrupted
A dream he suddenly controlled.
But dreams are lies we tell ourselves in order to
Not give in.
For there is a pit that awaits us all just outside our daily vision.
Neither malevolent nor loving, it simply waits.
Some of us never feel its pull. Some of us
Have enough inside to avoid it altogether.
But not the man who woke up in bed. He feels each day,
Each moment slipping away.
The pit widens and reaches for him because he is ready.
The man who went to bed is not the man
Who woke up.
That man was not awake.
This one wants to sleep forever.
2 comments:
A beautiful poem.
Reading it, it is strikingly familiar. Not in a plagiaristic sense, but in an emotional sense.
Thank you, Terry.
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