Aegri Somnia

Darkness on a piece of paper

Black soaks the white

In a motion slower than the ceiling fan

That struggles to cool

With heat inside that's untouchable

Unreachable.

And in the corner of the eye

In the clear corner of the tired eye

That wants to surrender to sleep

The tall dark apparition of the cabinet

Comes alive every second,

Gets larger and creeps in

Through the crevices curved by tiredness

Administering the excitement of fear

That recognizes the unknown

After knowing the unrecognizable:

The dark ghastly figure of a disfigured thought

Darker than darkness, there and not there

The excitement of witnessing

The real and not real

In the territory of time

Claimed by dreams

I keep my eyes open

To see nothing

And after seeing it

I cannot close my eyes. 

But in this little room that melts the bones

This room with walls that move

Could distant themselves like humans do

Yet they chose to close in,

Standing where they stand:

Square domes, Fibonacci spiral

The sound of sweat—an image from dream

Escapes the eyes and there

There on the ceiling

A certain slant of light

For a moment briefer than a second

Finds its way through the curtain

That conspires with the wind to conjure

A reality that is as unreal

As life itself.

Hisham M Nazer is Assistant Professor, Department of English, Varendra University.