Each blink stretches longer than the last,

Time dissolves like sugar in dark tea.

My eyelids grow heavy as lead curtains,

As reality blurs at the edges.

Then they emerge - my thoughts

Breaking free from skull-cage walls,

Dancing like smoke in midnight air.

I blink - they scatter like startled birds,

Leaving me dizzy in their wake.

Through frost-kissed windowpanes,

A pearl moon hangs, watching.

Night holds its breath,

Even my heartbeat seems too loud.

The blank page gleams accusingly,

My pen hovers - a hesitant warrior

Above unmarked territory.

Another blink brings them rushing back:

Grotesque dancers with paper-thin skin,

Whispering secrets in languages I half-remember.

They pirouette through shadow-spaces,

Until my eyes flutter - and emptiness returns.

Still the page remains pristine,

Unmarred by ink-blood or thought-wounds.

My pen trembles, thirsting for purpose.

I surrender to the dance between wake and dream,

Let my eyelids fall like final curtains.

When dawn's fingers pry them open,

Hours have slipped through time's cracks.

My page bears the beautiful scars

Of a night's fever-dream warfare:

Every word a victory,

Every line a battle won.