Sonnet on Insomnia

Living in this world can drive
you nuts. Perhaps it's always been
this way; perhaps the dusty archive
of history reveals more than sin
and mayhem, a propensity of doubt,
a human attraction to the loss
of sleep. You lie awake on stakeout
of your very soul, which gathers moss
in shuddered stillness. You don't pray
because you don't believe. Relief comes
occasionally -- a nap. And then another day,
your sanity in doubt; your demons, chums.
Your life becomes an existential rut:
Living in this world can drive you nuts.

--Charles Deemer