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enjoy this Christopher Hivner writing in the Scars Publications free 2016 PDF file chapbook: The Corrosion (click on the front cover image or the title text to download the free PDF file)				You can also order this as a 2016 6" x 9" perfect-bound paperback ISBN# book! Click on the book cover & order The Corrosion as a full color cover book today!

The Voice of Sleep

Christopher Hivner

“Wake up Frankie
and tell me a story.
The one that doesn’t end here
where we are.”

The voice emanates
from beneath my window
spiraling through pale street light
like smoke
chasing its tail.
Summer heat
pumps through my insomniac veins
while I stare
at visions of cool blue water
on my ceiling.
The fan on the floor
oscillates too slowly
to save me from melting,
while the world outside
burns to a crisp.

“Talk to me Frankie,
I can’t sleep
without you telling me
you love me.”

I wait
for Frankie’s voice
like every night,
dusting fairy tales to his girl
with the rhythm
of Muddy Waters,
making it okay
to be alive.
Stories of
high rise buildings
draped in silk
and touching the clouds,
where the lovely people
create the meaning
we all
strive for.

“Frankie,
why are you doing this to me?
Baby,
you have to wake up.”

4:00 a.m. and I pass each other
in the throes of drowning,
reaching a hand out
like throwing change
at a busker.
Where is the story
in the sweat of death?
Frankie’s voice
is gone.
His girl won’t cry,
so she begins
to sing,
a howl of desire
to make the wolf proud.

I drop off to sleep
as the sun rises
over the streets.

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