Tired Eyes

In the mornings

My eyes ache from the inside out.

Like I’ve been keeping flames locked inside my head while I slept.

Like I bottled up things that are toxic to the breath

And set them on shelves I’ve only seen in my head.

And it feels like I’m a child again.

4 am wake up calls

To climb in cars, joints achey

Legs stiff

Eyes burning from the backside out

And driving across deserts and storm lands.

Headed to see relatives and friends

I can’t remember the names of.

So I avoid waking early.

I let my eyes rest until all the fire and the smoke

Clear out from the back of my head.

And when I wake up

I don’t have to be afraid of the things I stored there

Because they all seeped out of my eyelids

And soaked down into the mattress below.