go to sleep//i tell myself

it's late,
i'm tired, but not that tired,
so i will keep myself up
while the owls howl their abstract songs
in the mist of a nocturnal hunt
while crickets dance in rhythmic 
syncopation, to and fro, 
as the wild night frolics into chaos,
and i listen somewhere in the background,
counting made-up sheep to fall,
perhaps drift,
perhaps nod,
off, and off, and off