"collage"

"i hate you...",
"i hate this life...",
mumbled as troubled
sleep slowly dissolves.

the actor finally stirs,
going through the motions,
speaking the lines
of a long-ago discarded script,
pretending to be happy...
pretending that it matters...

stumbling through the haze
of an empty pain,
a fog of uncertainty and doubt.

seconds tick by,
hours blur past,
while pixels paint vapid scenes,
images that never last.

sipping the orange,
as the gray fades to black,
scratching words, never to be read,
on rumpled pages.

moonless sky,
ancient lights shine,
cold, and long dead.

awake, exhausted,
yet afraid to sleep,
of nightmares,
haunted by ghosts from the past.

© 2005