“Overnight Verse”

  

c. 2026 Rod Ice

All rights reserved

(3-26)

 

Deep in the dark of night

Scattering my bedding, in search of a place to be still

Drifting in and out a world beyond the veil

Visions beyond the pale

I forget sometimes, on which side this episode began

Wandering, wondering

Still ignorant to the guise

Which protects me from being identified

I pause at intervals chosen by chance

In front of a luminous, digital display

A key to the unconscious pathway

That is open when I sleep

A voyage, fantastic

Unreal, unlived

Yet convincing in its lies

For a moment at least, I believe

I accept what the mind perceives

Conversing with those I have not seen

Loving hearts

Lyrically smooth, with a verse turned on its head

Gentle enough, but cold instead

This touch brings a chill

And then I am awake once more

Sat on the crushed edge of my mattress

Peering at the green squares

Silently ticking off time, while I am unaware

Close at hand, but distant enough to be disconnected

Invisible wires frayed and broken

A prayer for healing left unspoken

Until the dawn

Until that beaming burst of brightness

Offers its blessing

And a new day begins

Winds of change

Scattering the dustbins

Along a street marked with rueful events

A lost, lonely sense

Comes to fill my pores

I might have imagined more

If given the opportunity to wake in the midst of this lesson

But I have not yet expired the session

Not yet reached the edge

Dozing and drooling

Yarn spooling

Into a knitted fabric on which I recline

This destination is mine

But one set as a target without any pretense of pride

I am simply along for the ride

Eyes closed

A cough of mucous in my throat

Cleared like the crystal panes I imagine

Glowing and colorful

In the chapel arch

They call across the divide

As I linger in a netherworld

Neither here nor there, in fact

A wayward walk, off the track

Falling through levels of being, distilled

To the circumference of a medicinal pill

One I will take at the morn

Water glass in my grasp

With other prescriptions to clasp

Steadied on the countertop

The blind voyage had to be stopped

Now the waves are still

A sunrise, supreme

Replaces the shadows, and comfort of moonbeams

A new day is alive

As the old one will die

This is how the story ends, with a blank space

And a nod to grace