______instead of sleeping:

empty wine bottle
reflects the glow from used cigarettes

solitary tea rose incenses my arm

faint sirens call

thin clusters hide dippers in a slow drift

Aaron Neville
crickets
& cicadas
freed from little monsters stuck to red brick
harmonize

instead of sleeping:

reefer rising
in new moon sky

eight foot
cherry lollipops guard four corners

insomniac bird mocks

mechanical lightening bugs
flicker at twenty thousand feet

trimmed hedges protect
blinded shadows
across the street

______instead of sleeping:

can the despairing couple conceive?