INSOMNIA

Tell me the name is for a goddess,  
capricious and deadly, who      
mocks the afflicted in their dreams.  
 
I might endure more graciously  
if only this were a dream. It is  
she who tosses fireballs of light  
 
pulsating, flashing bright  
and going dim in the blackness  
behind these herniated eyes,  
 
to devour while I hear the sustained  
pitch of a sonic scream through  
the static frequency of night air,  
 
the peal and cry of her harpies  
smelling of singed hair and brains;  
the fever and sound rips through veins,  
 
cauterizing shut the window for sleep,  
leaving the frantic staccato of a  
heart in flight, as I whisper  
 
Goddess, why spare me the night.