Almost There

Her mind was a thoroughly erased blackboard, one
without even a smattering of chalk dust
around its edges. Waves of sleep were beginning
to cascade through her and her face relaxed,
her body reverting to its resting position
without thought.
If a black can become blacker, her mind was creating the shade;
her brain was devoid of thought and feeling. Sleep
would finally allow her through
its elite gates. She had waited so long…
That’s when she felt it: A nudge on her left shoulder.
Her arm twitched, and her brain flickered,
but the rest of her did little
to react to the movement. And that’s when
she felt it again, the hard edges of the spine scraping
across her shoulder, up to her neck. Suddenly
her mind was letting in thoughts,
allowing them to scrawl themselves across
her imagination. She clenched her eyes shut, determined.
Her face became taut.
“Not again,” she whispered
into her increasingly uncomfortable pillow.
And then a page dragged across her face,
leaving a stinging line of blood in its wake.
“But I’m so close!” she yelled, her words
filling her crowding brain
as they echoed in the empty room.
Her bed may have well become a cutlery drawer,
and she shifted and turned
on the now unbearable mattress.
“All right!” she said at last,
reaching for the small light switch above the bed nightstand.
“Just one more chapter!”

The book had won again.