let me sleep is a wish i made

[mindbum]

let me sleep is a wish i made

1.

last night i dreamed
my bed was crawling with tiny snakes.
before the tiny snakes there was a larger snake
left in my house that i hadn't paid any attention to.

last night i dreamed
my bed was full of tiny snakes
sewing through
the weave of the sheets
passing with ease
in all manner of tininess.
(round pupils are a sign of a non-poisonous snake.)

before, there had been a larger snake
seemingly harmless & almost friendly
in that nonexistent snake way.
moreso than they
& the cats didn't even eat him.
(always a surprise in the case of small crawling things)
an abandoned pet or something.
a magical livebearing snake with glowing eyes.
you're familiar with the kind.

last night i dreamed my bed was teeming
seething, slithering full of tiny snakes.
snakes that swim between the fabric's gridlike fibers with ease.

i was aswim in them & the bed
oh just let me sleep was a wish i made
but tiny snakes?
how do you say sleep in snake?
i think i wish i had a flute.

miniscule snakes sewed through layers of fabric
like br'er rabbit in the briar patch.


2.

last week there were actual tiny spiders in my bed.
they kept appearing & i was on the edge
wishing only to fall asleep.
but they kept showing up
on the middle of the white
as if from nowhere
well-lit by my lamp above.
i just wanted to sleep.
but there were tiny snakes
but there were tiny spiders

is this some form of insomnia manifest in pests?

3.

hallucinatory creatures

oh please i think i hear a rat
over there -->
it's in the wall
no, wait ...
over there <--
it is in the wall
the rats are filled with walls
& the walls filled with rats

teeming screaming rats
spun into kings
pinwheeling in the wall.


4.

last night there were tiny spiders in my bed
i didnt know what to do
they happened once in a while

tiny
each the same
i searched
lookt & stared
around the bed
its surface
i shook the lamp til the shade fell off
but i saw no spiders fall
i checked cracks & crevices...

finally, the exhaustion was too much
& i couldnt think
about the tiny spiders crawling onto my bed.

i struggled to turn the light off
& fell asleep.
these spiders didnt seem to further interrupt my slumber
i awoke with no obvious spider bites.