heard but muted

the sleep from which I cannot wake forces me to swim in the subconscious thoughts
					   of abstract nothingness
	   speeding to the ground in a semi-circle counter clockwise tumble
			  with a solid hit I am dazed but alive
	     I find myself crawling on the black highway of ambient noise
	   pointed stick-bugs skewer my mind's eye just before clear vision
			like a blind dog I stumble into the truth



			seen but invisible

		   walking the thin line between boredom and coma
			  I grab the pool stick with my left
				 chalk with my right
		     the solid crack of the cue passes through
			 the crowd parts with-out thought
    moving from side to side and end to end they pass without acknowledgement
			god why have you not forsaken me


			felt but ignored


    the shard of glass in my hand pulses with blood with each attempt to continue
			       pain moves unrestricted
			 faith drags me forward against my will
suffering under pure blue eyes of deception my thoughts pull me up from a deep
								  sleep 


---  by James Magro, Texas Tech University