Electric Dreams
By: Leigh Doughty
Six hours of sleep: an elusive dream.
Cannot be touched with these fingers
or with this spent mind
which has enjoyed the electric charge
of creative currents,
been ravaged by the abusive hand,
burnt into exhaustion,
left a cinder.
Currents of calm are needed,
yet this brain illuminates hard: no dimmers,
leaving evasive dreams out of touch.
Sleep stays out of reach because the
switches are lost and the wires emit
fires. Any hotter and it will nullify
this reckless mind that can never
switch off.
Leigh Doughty is a writer and a language tutor currently based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. His previously published work can be found in the VNexpress, Arteidolia, Meridian, and the Nuthatch.