Lightness of Being
B. L. Quanbeck
Ethereal thoughts haunt my restless sleep
Like a whisper on a pillow
Softly muffled by forgotten dreams, heavy
With the weight of hopes unrealized,
The yoke of reality a ballast 'round my neck, tight.
A cloud of visionary hindsight, melting
A snowflake on my tongue
Into transient murmurings silently vaporizing,
Blowing like chaff on the delicate wings of a breeze.
Elusive thoughts playing an illusory game of tag
Where no one is it and my mind is the mist, enshrouded
By the wisps of vapor seeking to bear its weightlessness
A spume that plays upon a ghostly paradigm
Of airy nothingness, intangible buoyancy
Which seemingly sinks and surfaces, bodiless,
Faceless, unencumbered by form, void of sensation
A breathless kiss upon my neck
From an imaginary lover whose shape I once knew
But can no longer find within dreams, fugitive
The fleeting remains of something I could once grasp
Now a fragile desire that has no name.