A Thousand Lonesome Nights

The twin wraiths of desolation and insomnia
Dance around my bed with gaiety in their eyes,
Grinning as I thrash about in a lonely disquiet

I tire of these tears drawing serpentine cascades
Upon my hollowed cheeks to leave moist rivulets
Between the crevices of sheets crumpled in fury

How many more nights without a hand to clasp,
Or the warmth of devotion glowing all around me?
Even calendars forget in this anguished monotony

Lids droop for a caressing moment, gently lulling;
Phantoms beckon from the mist of lost dreams,
Sensual warmth swirling along ever yearning skin

A kiss, then a voice: amalgamated hopes manifest
In muscle and flesh; my fantasy inamorato, here:
He dotes on me with eternity in coruscating eyes

Tempted, I claw to the world of conscious verity:
Masculine fingers interlace with mine, imploring
To remain beside him, for only here could he stay

I dare to wake: he fades like vapor into the void;
Illusions shattered, my heart curses this reality,
Weeping the elegies of an affection unattainable

A thousand lonesome nights, perhaps many more,
Blurring together: an array of diluted watercolors
Prognosticating of the million more yet to arrive.