Ariel in Men’s Pajamas – A Poem by Rowe Williams

A sleepless man rises 
from a bed 
to wonder at his wakefulness. 

Waves beat against 
the inside of his skull 
eroding him. 

He stood, once, 
a beach before 
the ocean. 

But as the carbon dioxide 
has left his lungs 
the oceans rise. 

Now he is both 
ocean and shore, 
bound and boundary. 

Now he longs 
to jump in the sea 
and be washed away.