Why I Do Not Sleep

My leg twitches

I cannot sleep

Remember when we played footsie under the table

And our friends had no idea?

My stomach growls

I am hungry

A growling gut is better than a fire alarm

Like when I tried to cook for you.

Eyelids won't shut

Too much caffeine

It will likely take weeks to come down from this high

After all the Starbucks dates

My mind races

I miss you so

Even with twitching, growling, or teariness

I would not sleep, lest I dream of you.

My Tourist-Trap Beach Town

Bustling with activity

My tourist-trap beach town

Searching for identity

Lonely in December

It did not snow much

In my tourist-trap beach town

No school the next day

But also no where to play

I remember one night

I heard a train creep through

I was warm in my bed

The tracks many miles away

I'd never heard the train before

In my tourist-trap beach town

I had lived there for six years

The train ran every night

But activity had died that night

Writers in hotels chewed pens

Kids wrote names on fogged glass

Southern cars dare not venture

That train prevented silence

In my tourist-trap beach town

That was our only chance

At peaceful serenity

It never got to be alone

So that town never found itself

But in that moment, I did

And I walked out in the cold

I had to get out of this

This tourist-trap beach town

I had to follow that train

It may never beckon again