Still Life

Stranded on a sleepless shore
A still-life world of waking dreams
Of fabricated lives I’ve spun
A silent space for stitching seams
An appetite for life submerged
Beneath the will to wake
And visions in insomnia
Beyond my grasp to take

I’ll keep the lie
I’ll break the tie
And kindle breath into my host
I’ll live the ritual deceit
And contemplate the ghost

I’ll slip beneath the surface
And step into the still lagoon
I’ll savour ebbing evening tides
That night may hold me soon
Enveloped in the cool awake
The mantle of my chosen way
I’ll find the solace of night’s eye
And there defy the day

So many times a visitor
In circumstance I’ve been
So many times a harbinger
Of futures I have seen
And so until the breaking dawn
Comes crashing through my frail façade
I’ll drift out to the far extent
Of letting down my guard
I'll introvert the incidence
Of circumspect reality
Then at daybreak
I'll anchor stake
And cast my lot to fantasy.