344. At Night, There Would be Dreaming

The night cannot be harder than the heart,
We sleep through dreaming as if there were no start.
My pants are ribbons blowing in the breeze.
I wish to stay here for only everything she sees.

We sleep through dreaming as if there were no start
To find a way to touch the thing that cannot part.
I wish to stay here for only everything she sees,
But I am blind to all that falls beneath my knees.

To find a way to touch the thing that cannot part,
To hope to kiss the night before it breaks,
To want to sleep, to want, to sleep, to want to, sleep,
I wish to stay here for only everything she sees.

To hope to kiss the night before it breaks,
I take my hands and hold them to my eyes.
I wish to stay here for only everything she sees,
But she is blind as me and cannot sleep.

I take my hands and hold them to my eyes,
To cover thought and open up to dream
But she is blind as me and cannot sleep,
And I can’t sleep a single hour away.

To cover thought and open up to dream,
I stuff my fists so deep into the night.
And I can’t sleep a single hour away
When I am grasping breath with every fist.

I stuff my fists so deep into the night
I puncture straight through sky and into light.
When I am grasping breath with every fist,
My heart it beats for sound much more than blood.

I puncture straight through sky and into light
And I see worlds that I might think were dreamt.
My heart it beats for sound much more than blood,
My head it holds all dreams at bay so I might sleep.

And I see worlds that I might think were dreamt,
The parliaments of night and all their words.
My head it holds all dreams at bay so I might sleep,
Though there is no sleep for the ones who only wake.

The parliaments of night and all their words
Cannot enjoin my right to never sleep
Though there is no sleep for the ones who only wake
And I would breathe the night to make it true.

Cannot enjoin my right to never sleep?
I would not sleep if it would keep me from sleep,
And I would breathe the night to make it true,
And I would ask the succubus to suck.

I would not sleep if it would keep me from sleep,
I would not ask the daylight ever to come,
And I would ask the succubus to suck
The life right out of till I were dead.

I would not ask the daylight ever to come
If I had thought I could get it to take
The life right out of me till I were dead
And give my head to dreaming or to hats.

If I had thought I could get it to take,
I would change my life to something darker
And give my head to dreaming or to hats
And live alone in palaces of sleep.

I would change my life to something darker
If that darker thing were dreams of night,
And, live, alone in palaces of sleep,
I would make a wondrous life all out of dread.

If that darker thing were dreams of night,
And all my thoughts were furies and small ghosts,
I would make a wondrous life all out of dread
And live as if I hadn’t lived a life away.

And all my thoughts were furies and small ghosts,
I told myself, and I must let them go,
And live as if I hadn’t lived a life away,
As if there were a way to find to sleep.

I told myself, and I must let them go,
That all my thoughts are children needing care,
As if there were a way to find to sleep,
The night cannot be harder than the heart.