In these hours, pent up after
midnight, I am here sleepless
thinking a set of thoughts
scattered in the heavy
silence of the night.

Thoughts of impending and
fragments of the past,
held in the half-sleep,
half-awake, shifting
across the minutes
that attend too well
this awkward state
of fretful drifting.

Sleep is not binding up
the cares of the day
but revelling in its absence
as I lie in night’s exit
gate that all too soon
will open out to light.

15/3/2024