By Stephanie Cheng

I shed sleep like a second skin,

shrugging it off and delving

with a wild ferocity

into the night.

letting the insomnia close over me,

sinking, spiralling, falling into a whirlpool of delirium, dark smudges under eyes and trembling hands —

alight with curiosity.

Hands that dart across a page, flitting over words,

too-fast thoughts tumbling off a tongue

They dip into ink and onto paper,

a cacophony of thoughts in dark smears across the room

and as the first rays of light sear my eyes, a sunrise too soon,

I feel the moment slipping away and

I grasp at a nothingness much like water, thoughts

trickling through my fingers and dripping onto paper-

a mess.