the night is my only friend

the bowels of the night

(4 a.m., to be exact)

and i'm still up

Or, to put it this way,

I have always been up

and will continue to be up 

until the end of time

Until human existence crumbles

until every living being on earth wilts and the flowers wither and die

and the vitreous humor in every human eye socket turns sour and curdled

and leaks out 

I am Ozymandias, king of kings!

I have seen the birth and the fall of Rome

I have trembled in fright as Nero played his lute

Rome ablaze

I have seen the broken, sweaty backs of subjects lifting 1,000-ton stone blocks

to build the pyramids sky-high

I have seen the seas churn and foam and form

into something livable

I have cradled the first trilobite gingerly in my arms

watched the universe kerrrrang into existence in a champagne supernova

and millions of years later thought to myself,

"well, the fourth of july just can't compare"

I have seen the foreseeable future

the inevitable hush as things grow silent

and there i will be,

standing atop the last crumbling skyscraper

the new american pyramid

and suddenly my eyes will open

and it will be 10:41 p.m.

and i will wake up from a drinking-induced slumber

mildly hungover

(did we really have to drink that entire bottle of wine??)

and scavenge for food

just as the cavemen did

all those years ago

as the entire world sleeps blissfully

in this long

               day's

                         journey

                                      into 

                                                          night