The following are two poems related to insomnia, and one in response to the poem Hypnos, God

of Sleep by Adelaide Crapsey.

Eleven Days
by Amanda Macauley
Alertness like a quicksandits a sinking into hours of consciousness and the inability to
collapse into restI cannot sleep.
Close my eyes for just a momenta momentand the heaviness of continuous, existence smashes down
and balloons into further compression; Im so tired; I wont sleep.
just a momentand the momentum of my initial backwards motion cascades into an endless falling
and Im falling and Im falling and Im falling- but not asleep.
I can feel the effects:
I can feel my mind deteriorating: thoughts tossed and neurons like frayed
circuits; haywire.
I can feel my body suffering: the strain of unhealed bones and muscles that dont
fully flex as I stay wrapped up in the immobility of my unrest;
I can feel my heart stopping: the fear of the end as a result of my lack of slumberthis pressure to sleep is frighteningly squandering
I cant breathe, I cant sleep, this is panic but for whatever insanity I persist in this
self-depravationI can feel myself dying
I wont sleep.

Challenger Deep
by Amber Le
There is a place
untouched by my waking mind
Visions of a sweet, dark depth
Fathoms below my conscious thoughts
He calls, oh how he always calls
From the shadows straight below
When the dive sends me down, down, down
Leagues upon leagues of darkness
There comes a point where I find
I cannot, cannot breathe
So with searing lungs and a panicked heart
I claw, tear, rend the subconscious abyss
Back to the surface, back to the surface
Take this weight from my chest
No tempest nor cyclone can submerge me again
I have escaped and will never turn back
Yet it continues to call
this obscure siren song
Come back, come back
its whispers so sweet
Diving in once again
pulled by the melody
I venture back into
the Challenger Deep

A Mention of Unwelcome- to Hypnos

by Amanda Macauley
A creeper like the shadows
he seeps into my consciousness.
He gifts me with an otherworldly escape:
a release into fantasy and night-dreamflitting colors and wishes as appearances in this non-reality,
caresses of untruths and sweet lies like melodies;
Im swirling in pleasantries
but equally suffering as these night-dreams avalanche into horror sceneslumbering screams and gnashing realities
unbidden into this nighttime.
I rise with jaws unhinged and pale white face and unspoken atrocities
warping my mind and twisting my sanity.
So I stay awake, refuse his nicetiesI prefer the dull absence of slumber
to the agony of my fears re-lived with tremors.