JELLY FISH TIME ZONES -(for my Reggie)

 

You lay your head down,

pillows eager to catch the descent.

A smooth and gentle glide of the sheets.

The unwritten contract of slumber,

slowly coming to fruition.

 

On this side of the latitudes,

My eyes are wide and open.

Memorizing each grain and paint stroke of a half-hearted ceiling.

Well-aware of your state, it shifts me into a cycle.

I become a mere slush of a former man, turned into gel.

And I roll side to side, trying to restore a form.

 

The asleep-and-awake state, this pinning love and hate,

and that less-than-half-a-second moment…

always too late, stops my heart for one day.

Until nighttime visits here,

and I become man once more.

 

For my nights mean you are there haunting the house.

Chairs flipping, doors creaking, coffee mugs shifting,

and you, in a sleeping gown (or pajamas)

floating around in a glowing circle.

 

I have no circles of my own.

I want to be your circle.

Glowing.

 

Jay Protacio Mendoza

(1978 -             )