
i wrote this before sleep
by charlie menke
found washed up on the beach
i wrote this before sleep
having been someone else i can now rest
loitering by the sea side
exhausted.
below me there is dirt,
rock,
lengths of dead things,
a core.
nothing is separate
in its difference.
language of decay erases my
tongue and shoots arrows
from my spectral eyes,
inviting only pleasure,
sweetest hum,
left to orchestrate.
i rush swiftly like the Willamette,
flowers blossoming unto flowers,
chains of Forget Me Not,
threading my neurons with a symphony,
my bones with a vortex.
here i am, dreaming
here i am, dreaming
here i am, dreaming
dreaming
dreaming
charlie is a poet in Burlington, Vermont.

image by charlie menke