Aphelion Issue 292, Volume 28
March 2024
 
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Most Sheepish

by Nikhil Kshirsagar


Sleep and I
had a fight one night
and I slept later and later
Till one night
goodnight
was a full night later.

A medical opinion said,
"Don't go to bed.
Don't ask to sleep,"

"Insomnia
is to the mind,
what a fever is to the body.
It must be spent.
Where wakefulness went.
Don't buy back sleep,
Don't count them sheep.
Give guilt its due,
'coz should you sleep,
It lies with you."

"Leave daydreams in your wake,
Sweat it out, stay awake!"

Once I even heard myself say,
In an absolutely absurd way,
If thats what it takes, to set things right,
"Gosh… I hope I don't fall asleep tonight!!"

So a day went by.
(a long day)
Weeks of a day…
Months and months of a week…
of a day

And so, in my inverted way,

I landed in a dreamy night,
Thoroughly awake,
feeling bright.

A little sheepish though.


© 2020 Nikhil Kshirsagar

Nikhil Kshirsagar is a software engineer with a major IT firm. While he works mostly at night, he calls it his day job. In his spare time he writes short stories and strums a few chords. He also rapidly tires of writing about himself in the third person.

Find more by Nikhil Kshirsagar in the Author Index.

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