I Just Want to Sleep

No, I am not lonely,

I say that all the time.

It is getting tiring,

I just want to sleep.

Is it okay to sleep?

I hate feeling all these emotions,

My heart cannot take the pains and contradictions,

It is too much.

I just want to sleep.

I have to get up and do things.

I need to do them if

I would not cry in my sleep –

Sticky tongue and Biting stomach; but

I just want to sleep.

It is better to sleep.

I don’t want to think of things

What? How? When? Where?

Ages Past? Yesterday? Today? Tomorrow? Forever?

I just want to sleep.

I am not lonely.

I just want to sleep

In the darkest corners

With no light piercing through walls

All alone in this darkness,

No voices, no noise to remind me of…..

I just want to sleep.

This poem on our Style and Rhythm column was written by Adaudo Anyiam-Osigwe  and is from her book of poems – A Little Understanding: Poems from the End of Childhood to the Beginning of Adulthood