Disturbed Sleep

by Philip Vassallo

Listen to his snoring:
sounds unhealthy if you ask me,
though I know it's a nuisance to you.

But look at it from his state,
how he lies there, grunting and gasping
like a dying man

as we stand over his unconsciousness.
You cannot prescribe remedies
hearing it that way.

You say it's only cackling snores.
Easy to hypothesize in the clinician's role,
dispassionately observing this screaming sleeper

breathing like his whiskers
cutting his pillow in sleep
under such repenting breath.

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