3:35am

It’s not like racing or even a slow jog.

My mind at this time of the morning

Is more deliberate and spaced apart like

the first snowfall when it starts with silence,

and moves to accumulation,

and eventually buries everything in sleep. 
Yes, my mind moves like that at 3:35am.

And it’s not worry that keeps me awake. 

It’s more the disparate thoughts that try 

to connect their web to the other unattached

webs. 
Like how my brash, (and sometimes, 

disarming), openness to share personal

trials and stories with groups of complete

strangers can make listeners uneasy; 

yet, throughout my life, 

my closest friends and lovers

have this private wall of China 

and that concealed Teflon locked box

of hidden stories and thoughts. 

And I am the opposite expression of these

friends and lovers. 

And yet, I am drawn to them. 

Why is this? How is this?
And humor…

It seems necessary for our existence,

as important as air. Yet, most religious

guides fail to have even one passage

of ticklish levity to help us get through this life.

And there’s nothing funny about that.  

Why don’t they? How is that possible? 
And so it goes…

These thoughts fall, softly, 

like the first snow, like deliberate breath, 

like sleep

when 3:35am has passed, 

and I wish to be buried, 

with eyes closed,

into a dream.