Charm Against Insomnia
Little mouse, little
gray hunger
that nibbles
the night to a bony
toothpick,
little possibility
of impossible things,
glimmer of nothing
like hope,
little shadow
that dreams,
small genius of bad teeth
and ice,
angel of wire,
of colic, of palsy-
thin kittens,
contain like a penny,
an aspirin,
your acids and bitters;
cart off on your coattails
your vulture-rich
contrails, your spidery
roses or doses
of splinters,
bugger and sod off,
blister and suffer,
wither, fester, lackluster,
besnuff, beshrivel,
becroak, benight,
belabor, bellbind, be gone!
