The Finale

Mechanical humming vibrates from nearby.
Arise, oh weary sleeper.
Plagued dreams linger on,
tempting return to permanent slumber.

Arise, oh weary sleeper,
embrace the hours ahead.
Tempting return to permanent slumber,
depart, no longer linger.

Embrace the hours ahead
do not race towards the dawn light.
Depart, no longer linger,
darkness deep and dreary.

Do not race towards the dawn light,
her hazy warmth awaits your arrival.
Darkness deep and dreary,
drowning beneath her lucid glow.

Her hazy warmth awaits your arrival,
as surrounding voices whisper for your return.
Drowning beneath her lucid glow,
as your terminal breath elopes.

As surrounding voices whisper for your return,
plagued dreams linger on.
As your terminal breath elopes,
Mechanical humming vibrates from nearby.

Written by
Lyla Arthurs
May 2007

(This poem is called a “Pantoum”. The form works by taking lines 2 and 4 of every stanza (verse) and making them lines 1 and 3 of the following stanza. This changes only in the last stanza; where lines 3 and 1 of the first stanza become lines 2 and 4 of the final stanza.)