Showing posts with label insomnia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insomnia. Show all posts

Thursday, July 23, 2009

3 / 30 : pacific standard time.

real talk... since i've gotten back home from chicago, i've felt disturbingly listless. i hate doing nothing. i hate worrying. whatever. poem three.

pacific standard time


dg,
you're usually the only one 
up
who
keeps me sane at 5 am, my 
preferred bedtime during the summer months
because the sun always bids me adieu
before it does you
on the california coastline

and we usually chat about silly shit
like queso cheese dips and the
absurdity of a restaurant being called
in and out and we'll discuss your dreams
however lofty they may be
of becoming a producer turned mogul
on some diddy shit

but last night, for you,
this morning, for me,
i called you up crying
something i rarely do these days
and i spit my problems out 
like stale milk on the tip of my tongue
with passionate intensity as if i cried hard enough
they would be waiting on your doorstep
next to the morning paper

and in true demetrius style you listened
and told me to relax and chill. 
while
i've heard that so many times before
from so many people who swallow 
those very words when misfortune tracks them down
ive never seen you break a sweat
despite the circumstances the last three years
have brought you so when you say it i
chill

and quietly for hours we talk 
about the things that really matter
on the fact that even you
get rattled from time to time and that
i'm far stronger than i'll ever give myself
credit for and what will happen to us
to all of us 
in the year to come and
we laughed and we groaned and we grew
quiet 
as moments ticked tocked into thin air

and i want you to know that after i hung up
the pain that, at first, seemed too much to bear,
a mere few hours later seemed
to have evacuated my broken heart, 
leaving me with the capacity to sleep

for years we've been summer pen pals
having virtual slumber parties in june
becoming party partners in crime again 
come august
but its good to know that 
you care enough about me and 
you'll never ever front
even though
you're three hours behind

Saturday, December 27, 2008

somebody.

sometimes i wish
that i could meet
that somebody
who would save me
take me away
from this place 
and lead me 
to happiness.
wherever that may be.

and then i wake up
from delusion and
i realize that the only
person who can
get me to where
i want to be 
is me.

and i know
i don't believe in
a man turned messiah
to take me in his arms
wipe my problems
and my tears away

and every man
i have ever met has
let me fall
let me slip
let me down
at some point or another

so somebody,
whomever you are,
wherever you might be
if you're out there
take your time.
i'm still working on
me

Thursday, December 11, 2008

auto-pilot.

a funny thing happens during exam week. mere mortals turn into mutants with the ability to stay up 36 hours straight, surviving only on hot chocolate and milky way bars. for an A, people will stay up all nite, in the most uncomfortable and compromising positions. some people will lie. some people will steal. some people will wear a green sweatshirt with orange leggings. all are crimes, all are against the law, but for some reason, during exam week, the game changes.

so last night/this morning, i had to have looked like i was strung out on drugs. slurred speech. walking with a limp. memory impairment. vision blurred. sprawled out on the floor taking naps. there was no way in hell i was going to let PSCI 204 beat me.

my exam started at 9 am. no real sleep in 36 hours. i get my exam booklet. multiple choice: difficult but not unbearable. id questions: straight. short answers: my head gets heavy. i start writing unintelligble things "frederick douglass went to a party last night". the next thing i know, my professor is tapping me on the shoulder, waking me up.

i go to the bathroom. throw water on my already horrific looking face. bounce around. stretch. do old cheer routines. anything to get me back in the game.

i come back in to the lecture hall. knock the essay out the park. A.

come back to my room. go to bed at 11 am. wake up at 3 pm. cannot go back to sleep. cannot figure out WHY i cannot go back to sleep. my body is on auto-pilot and i can't turn this shit off.

Monday, November 17, 2008

insomnia, #1

i guess since i slept for mad long today and since today was fairly hellish, i was restless around 1 am and decided to harass christine. she and i started talking about different subjects and then jeannette walked in. the three of us proceeded to guess where each other would grow up to live and what type of man we could see each other marrying.

  • christine = white man named pete, from san francisco, fairly chill but REALLY funny and enthusiastic. they'd have to live in new york because christine isnt living anywhere else.
  • jeannette = some halfsie or some weird hybrid of raciality named Birk [not his real name, but he changed it bc it sounds more eco-friendly]. they would have two kids, clover and sky, and live in a treehouse.
  • me = the girls deduced that i would marry someone who would completely zone out on sundays during 'game days' and it would piss me off but i'd love him so i'd get over it. also, they decided this man has to be mad chill to balance out my....me-ness. and he'd have to be fairly comfortable with the fact that i'll probably be a crazy paid badass.
so this discussion went on for awhile then aba happened to wake up and joined in the convo. we started talking about organ donations, jonbenet ramsey, ghana, allergy shots, brooklyn, and everything in between. the white girl who lives between christine and i beat on the wall and yelled SHUT UP and i almost got up and handled her but i regained composure.

anyway, this went on for awhile but then we all got sleepy and christine kicked us out. this is what we do on the 11th floor.