Sleep, Recently

Sleep, recently,
has been like
scrabbling in a cave –

grabbing at the waists
and swatting asses
of small misbehaving

demons – scrawny
gremlins, proto-ogres –
stealing when I can

into a murky corner
to inhale its heavy mist –
to lose resistant bits

of consciousness –
until I’m kicked again into
a shallower cognition

by some final squiggling
green-eyed sprite –
whose tiny

sharp repeating bite
informs me
I am done with night.

.