My dreams just died @ 2AM.
Sheet-entangled, pillow-crushed
fluorescent-number-blinded
tick-tock-clocked-aware bewared
my thoughts are grinded into grime.
@2 AM my mind is dwelling-dancing,
mumble-fumbling for illusions,
gasping-gripping in delusions
and for a wish of second winds
I’m suffocated in amnesia
acquainted by the night.
I’m twisting, turning absentminded,
(mind the gap)-awake tonight.
I’m waning in a wake
@2 AM my dreams are dead.
Death: My irony surpasses all others! by Odilon Redon
Today Anthony wants us to write a poem for 2 AM at dVerse Poetics. Whatever 2AM is OK, look on Instagram for inspiration. I went a little abstract with this one… Come and see how others write. Pub opens at 3PM EST.
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May 18, 2015
I really think you did an excellent job with this poem Bjorn. The alliteration works smoothly, even using the @ symbol fits right in the way you have used it. >KB
Yikes. Being unable to sleep it absolutely no fun. Especially when it is just you up with all the ghosts of that time of evening, when the veil draws thin.
I love the way you split “awake” and turned it into “a wake,” ending the poem with “dead.” Perfect.
The part about having a crush on your pillow is my favorite. 😛
I could feel your anguish. Well done.
Hard when one’s dreams die at some point in the night & one is left struggling with all illusions and delusions! This kind of night can be a VERY long one. Your poem gives me the sense of that.
I liked this! The alliteration, the rhythm gave a sense of tossing and turning, beating the pillow…a wake….dead. Really good for 2 a.m.
Oh My, this is splendid, Bjorn. And I know too well what it actually feels like. Great alliteration, Perfection!
2 AM is a hard time to be awake in. Thanks, Bjorn. k.
wow, very haunting read by you, Bjorn – I dig it. I’ve spent wayyy too meaning nights mumbling and fumbling… ugh
This is so perfectly expressed, That feeling we all get at 2am. I enjoy your work!
Ps. Love the reading!
“Wish for second winds” …
love this line most of all.
Hope you finally got to sleep. zzzzz.
Excellent foray into fear & anxiety, disturbing within its macabre abstraction–when the mind will not go quiet, when stress & anxiety produce a Roger Corman 1960 American International drive-in historical horror film starring Vincent Price, with an aged Boris Karloff narrating the prelude to a Poe tale–with a little Kafka sprinkled on too. I like the lines /I’m suffocated in amnesia/acquainted by the night/.
“mumble-fumbling for illusions”
I love that!
Even though you never say you are tossing and turning, that is what I pictured as I read this.
I like how the complex words make the moment feel heavy and difficult. Aren’t these moments painful? And we so much long to get back to those dreams.
excellent — a sound play
cool
wow!!! such beautiful flows of imagination and soul.
I love this piece my friend. 🙂
Happy to be double-dipping your words, Sir. This one is so vivid. Well done.
So true – any time I’ve found myself twisting and turning at 2 am – my dreams are definitely dead … and buried.
Really liked this! I’m completely there with you. Hate those nights! Great job!
last two lines are killers…spent some luxurious moments with wonderful words….
The same soundness of words butted together, “tick-tock-clocked” and “mumble-fumbling,” really add that weary, 2am , unable-to-keep-it-together-ness that I often feel at that time. A very fun read.
a bit enigmatic, and the picture works perfectly with this…looks a bit like an ultrasound, and so my thoughts went to the loss of an unborn child…but it’s not quite an ultrasound either, and so many interpretations are possible.
Sounds uncomfortable! 😀
Yes.. to lose a dream of wonder.. is a place of much regret.. no wonders gained.. no wonders lost.. no wonders be.. when they are lost…
But there is always morrow night..
With more dreams coming in delight..:)
It took me a while to recover from the quiet despair …
Tossing and turning! That is quite a bother if sleep is difficult. Mostly at 2am it happens, very familiar experience for most!
Hank
Your facility with words in your second language is formidable! The wordplay in this is brilliant – except for grinded! the word is ground, but your word is more fun.
Thank you Viv.. I had to search for grinded.. I have to say you caught me with an error there.. but apparently not completely. According to grammaris.com it has become a little bit more common, and it is also an archaic word.. But for me it was a pure mistake (I think I might have seen it once or twice).
Don’t get me wrong, I lioved grinded! It’s like loose for lose – I see it more and more,and it makes me grind 🙂 my teeth.
🙂
This is exactly what I needed after work today 🙂 So many beautiful sounds!
…after sound sleeping, the mind awakes and we cannot turn it off. great sounds of restlessness and frustration here…it happened to me just the other night..for the life of me I couldn’t re-start the dream..it was gone
My own acquaintance with 2 am is a bit abstract as well and you poem is quite a good illustration of the 2 am feeling.
Can’t help but think of that cliche–“been there, done that.” Clever line especially about the dreams dying and the way you spaced the title.
your poetry is always a treat. i wish i could carry this kind of rhythm…this poem almost reads itself to you!
Coming from you that’s a great compliment.. but I think playing with rhythms is like laying a puzzle for me.
I can relate to this restlessness. I really like your hyphenated words..
“dwelling-dancing, mumble-fumbling for illusions, gasping-gripping in delusions”.
This is a hard-hitting set of words that are almost thrown. You have a wonderful ear for language and each lexical item here seems to have a hard-edge. You caught 2 am so well.