Visitation

When I am asleep
The man inside of me wakes up,
Stares uncomprehending
'Til I intervene and explain what a mess
My life's become:
It just goes on without reason or reward.
It finds it's own rewards and reasons
But these are no matter now,
When the eyes that were closed fling open.
How to explain such a failure to live,
As a pause so like death settles in,
The things one thinks can sustain one like food:
Other people, ideals, objects from gardens and closets
Are nowhere near this body lying broken by fatigue,
They cannot be reached for
Though cartoon faces flood the head
And one can view, in dreams, the lights of Greenland.

There are moments the doubles close in and become one
As the lazy mind nods away
But stillness is not allowed for long
And the partners resume their inquiries in silence,
With their separate eternities
And their alternate guides.
Each one's logic is to the other gibberish,
Each one's reality is to the other illusion.
Each one feigns surprise that what shadows them
Has a life at all,
How can something so hidden exist?
Yet the barest peek paralyzes.
So they go on performing for each other,
The strings and how they sound.