Sandcastles

Building sleep-
sandcastles in
waves of heat;
flame licked  to
walls of glass.
Sunlight towers,
hard beacons
rise unsmiling
sentinels to
Mayhem,
my prison camp.

I want to sleep
but the gas mask
is poor cushion for
a parched mind and
awareness bleeds
my eyes out in
dry intervals.

I want to sleep
but the jagged fragments
of a thousand collapsed
cities dig at my mind
as long memories
forgotten.

Living in sleep-
sandcastles this world
blurs
into
the next
(the last)
and I dream
aware.