Nighted

(i) rising

sleep
that sunless swale

smears its powdered tincture
across my face

I change buoyancy
in notion’s tide

an epilogue of bubbles
regards my wake

and a dead tree
juggles the sun

(ii) falling

armour tinkles and
rainbows hug the moon

I’m bucked off
by a nightmare

her hooves
like thunder at my cheek

in my helmet seventeen stars
like quilted eyeballs

announce a landing
pillow-short and spear-bound

Nighted

comfort drops away
I pass through sinuous silk

to the ravenous calm
of oblivion