I can still feel the burn in my throat of
the last hit of single-malt whiskey
as I lie in the midnight darkness,
I need sleep, I need to drift away,
but rather than delicate slumber
what comes to visit is
visions and voices,
an endless list of things,
things I need to do
things I should have done
things I should not have said.
ideas for stories and poems
bounce around my head
characters chatter away to each other.
Guys, I say, can you keep it down,
I need to sleep.
As I lie in the smothering darkness
the rest of the world
seems far away, on the other side
of a vast ink-black ocean.
As the sky lightens and the sun softly rises
a line from a Pink Floyd song
pirouettes around my head
Is there anybody out there?