Prayer for Sleep

I wish I could sleep at night
Like other people do
Rest in the dark
Forego the dread, the doom
But I can’t - I have to stand guard
I can’t go to sleep
I can’t go to Sleep
Like a foreign town
The train has left long ago
Carrying all there but me
Left alone, left behind.
I can’t go to Sleep.
The monsters will come
And the monster is me.

Like one bitten by a vampire
I feel the growth of horror within
Called out by the night
When babies cry and dogs howl
- They know best and better
Dawn and dusk balance our lives
In perfect harmony
But I rage against universal laws
I am prey to a beast
And every night we dance
To death, to exhaustion
All night I fight the angel
And find no forgiveness at dawn