When Sleep is at Stake

When slumber’s sliced like steak and

knife

Lying on dream’s platter

Day’s eyes of round and round bleed night

White sheets, butchered with splatter

Chewing fat encumbers life

Salt-wounds kosher the soul

Searing, masticating strife,

Asleep on beds of coal

Morning meets one satisfied

A cut above the rest

When anger, flanking heart and mind,

Hangs, frozen, un-ingest’