Awake (3) The Madman's Curse

It's been six months and Taylor hasn't slept for a minute of it. 

His girlfriend (Kate) is unaware of his extreme insomnia and leaves him overnight while she is away on a business trip. In her absence Taylor's sleep deprivation turns to psychosis. 

Now alone he imagines his household appliances tormenting him. 

Until he decides to act.

Awake is a film I discovered three years ago, and it was so disturbing that it inspired me to write this five-act poem:

Is there a way to stop the beating of

The metronomic pulse inside my head –

We know how time may race for those in love

But slow for those whose dread is never dead?

Is there a way to stop the taunting of

– As if the television were my head –

The lady whom I love, but can she love

The way I was the night I struck him dead?

Is there a way to stop this thinking of

Whatever runs like ink inside my head –

This trauma from a tale I do not love

To tell and wish instead that I were dead?

Awake, Act 3. The Madman's Curse © Ron Villejo