What is certainty?
            trapped between
                    awake     asleep       insomnia     paralysis   dreams

What is perceived?
            sounds invade
                    meows   heaters     car alarms   sighs         silence

What is memory?
            repeated reality
                    panic       hands         shiver           running     stillness

When the lights dim,
            moments before the fall
                          the vulnerable state
                                      teetering on the edge
                                                  unable to surrender
                                                              unable to retreat
                                                                          jolted back into focus
                                                                                        safe from nightmares that await.

Deluded that reality,
unconsciousness
exist in separation.
Inspired to relive
mundane moments
in the realm beyond
creating replicas in our nightly sojourns.
Paralyzed by the ambiguity
that what is buried deep within
won't surface,
suffocate us,
stifle our ability to distinguish
dream from awake.

Benign,
                          they say          he says         she says            I say

Never do I believe that what I dream
isn't as real as what I live.