In order to view this poem with the line breaks the author intended, we suggest reading it on a computer screen or in the landscape orientation on your phone or tablet.

tonight is another night

it’s late at night
when they’re all asleep
that I repeat everything I’ve said

somehow, all of it, is wronger each time
until there’s a hollowness to my honesty
that I begin to recognize
and am sure they do too

until I’m so fake
I’m such a fraud
I’m no one at all
a liability bankrupting
both sanity and soul

trying to fit in
trying to stand out
trying to assign meaning
trying too hard

I travel past the day
past the week, past the month
I must fall asleep
before I make it
back to my childhood

the sun’s relief forces its way
through crevices to promise me
hope that I’ll be better today

—
Christopher Cleary is a former metropolitan Atlanta English teacher who holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting and a master’s degree in project management. His stage plays have been produced in various theatres and published by The Playwrights Publishing Company (UK), while his young adult novel was released by Immortality Press. Cleary’s short stories have recently appeared in Cæsura, Mystery Tribune, and Better Than Starbucks.

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Have you read these poems:
Meditations in an Emergency by John Milkereit
What is bliss? by Joshua Zeitler

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