a.d. winans | 4 am insomnia poem

4 AM INSOMNIA POEM

lost in the never
never land of insomnia
a dark forest ravished by storms
where dreams go to perish


my mind hijacks my destiny
speaks in tongue
devours the silence
walks hunchbacked
like a gypsy tailor
pushing a garment cart


a sacrificial virgin
burns in volcano ash
a Tiajuana Jesus
nailed to a plastic cross
winks at the twelve wise men
making a return trip to the manger
after a shopping spree at Walmarts


a fortune teller
trades in her crystal ball
for a tarot card reading
the lone survivor of a shipwreck
floats aimlessly at sea
my love returns from
the bermuda triangle
in the disguise of a mermaid


the pope pleads for humility
god answers with lightning
jesus responds with thunder


a bee colony drips honey between
the legs of a dairy queen
a haunted house coughs up
an angry ghost drunk
on death


dante gives up his seat in hell
to Rosa Parks who recites
the lord’s prayer backwards
to a honky sheriff
in Selma, Alabama


Saint Peter empties purgatory
the FDA declares sleeping masks
a fraud
Van Gogh demands his ear back


a new born baby
is sacrfiiced at the Louve
a french Mistress closes her legs
in protest|


the mirror mocks my image
twenty-plus years of sleeplessness
camp inside my skull
hot as volcano ash


satan recruits me
god makes no counter offer
a whisper of sleep camps
inside my eyeballs
I surrender with a whimper
drown in a series of Hail Mary’s
recited by sexy nuns
in see-through attire

0 Replies to “a.d. winans | 4 am insomnia poem”

  1. Al,

    Great images – I felt I was looking through your sleepy eyes. Your detail is perfect which elicits burning images. Wonderful poem!

  2. An original in poetry with a language that denies itself
    a boxed in originality, rather a universal non normative
    poem with a form and structure as in a dream state of
    a melodic subjective coherence of voice and modulation.
    My best,
    BZ Niditch

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