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Life is such weight! That is what you suddenly thought Lying awake in the enormous silence that is
The focus of the insomniac’s pained consciousness.
So in that pain, rising to the near window, spying
The city’s stillness with street lamps intensifying
The nightlong gloom, you once again remember the girl
With the crystalline eyes who made you believe in
Love at first sight, and the curve of a child’s smile –
Softer than kitten sleep – which recalls to you how
A child ages to inspire all known sorrow, and how
You know now that a boy never forgives a man
For not being perfect. You know now
That the hollow faces of both garish nightmare and TV news Exist with you in what you like to call Reality.
You know once and for all that there is no use in trying
To ignore the pain that makes you so completely human,
And so you hope that when dawn comes,
In that moment of magenta and pure potential,
You can remember how you have before lived through your pain. Then you remember how you are loved undeservedly.

Joe Sarnowski

Joe Sarnowski teaches English at San Diego Christian College, Santee, California. His poetry has appeared in Old Hickory Review, Broken Streets and Mobius.