Curious is the fact
that a sleeping being
is altogether aware
yet elects to ignore
the waking world
in favor of the abstract,
the otherworldly,
or the fantastical:
the sidelined mind
makes sweeping leaps.
One cannot dream
or recupe, it seems,
while doggedly awake.
And when we wake
we do not crow
in tactless triumph
over the profligate
ignorance of sleep.
We do not scoff
at others still abed
for well we know
the sun also rises
in their longitudes.
We are aware, too,
because we are awake,
that some sleep much
and some sleep less,
that some rise early
and some rise late.
One does not violently
shake a sleeping mate.
Finally, quite finally,
curious is the fact
that the woke mind
soon tires of labor
and opts to return,
voluntarily, daily,
to the abstract realm,
to the otherworldly,
or the fantastical—