Sleep Fall

Step off the cliff and fall into slumber

Or step to the edge and look down

There is darkness and the past below

On the precipice of now and eternity

Sit on the fence dividing

Consciousness and nothingness

This desert of liminal space

Place of wanderings uncharted 

To walk off the edge is to surrender

One's thoughts to the whim of the wind

Swirling and lost in the oblivion 

A blissful trance of suspension drift

To balk at the edge is to fight the fall

Monkey mind screams against the plunge

The body longs for the drop

But thoughts panic from the heights

Wicked dreams wait at bottom

Lurid fantasies beckon

Nightmares lurk on ledges unseen

You don’t find out until you fall

Some escape in the descent

Some avoid it like the plague

Fatigue chases the restless

Until they’re caught and thrown down

Long is the trusting fall of childhood

Oft interrupted is the curse of age

Apnea and anxiety make shallow depths

While innocence is a valley deep

Sleep is a solitary pursuit

One can’t be lonely if no one else is around

No wonder the lonely seek refuge

In the never ending fall

In the fall, time distorts

Years can take seconds 

And seconds feel like years

Images race past or remain stuck 

Is it true the familiar tale

Die in your dreams and die in real life?

Is dreamless sleep best 

Or are dreams a sign of rest?

The fall is the mystery

The fall is faith and trust

That in the falling, death

And one will wake again