stay awake (by Veronica McDonald)

a new day
a new hour
Where am I
stay awake
the Lord says to stay awake
my mind wanders, dreaming
floats over where I don’t live
anymore
stay awake
TV books and nooks
full of cobwebs
where I once sat to dream
where spiders made their nests
on and over me
“she sits and dreams
sits and dreams
her insides brew with want and envy
wants to touch the world
but she can’t feel it”
Where is it
Does everyone live in it but me
everyone lives in it but me
I’ll sit and dream with no hope
worlds both inside and outside of me
I can’t get at them either way
not if I tear my skin or reach out my arms
asking the world to rescue me
no one hears, they’re not there
the spiders say I’m ok
and carry me back to the corner
they say
“go to back to sleep, keep dreaming
keep dreaming, so we can make our nests”
but the Lord says stay awake
stay awake stay awake

 

Photo credit: “Thick Spider’s Web” by Lancelot Speed (Public Domain).