My New Friends at Night

Sheep have stopped coming to visit me at night. I do not watch them hopping gates. Watching them through the backs of my eyelids. In the dead of night, when the darkness is just right

I receive new visitors.

Friends or Foe? I wouldn’t know

Their black, inky outlines soothe me to sleep. Whenever I feel alone, I know I can find them in the darkness.

These new friends of mine that visit at night

They bring me dreams of nothingness, or sometimes pain.

At times, they sit on my chest to be closer to me

Holding me captive to the bed as they weigh down my limbs and prevent breath from filling my lungs

But they’re always there

Never have they left me alone

Maybe that’s why I stay up at night: to play with them

To visit my friends of the darkness

Existing in every corner of my mind

Shaping themselves in the darkness of my heart

The moonlight project their shadows into my doorway

At night when I rest my head

I’m comforted by the silence making so much noise

My friends of the darkness never let me rest, but

Without them I wouldn’t be able to sleep

My friends of the darkness defend me from the sheep that try to visit me at night

They cradle me in their insensitive care as sleep in the irritating comfort

My new friends (or maybe foes) always visit me at night