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This poem is taken from PN Review 177, Volume 34 Number 1, September - October 2007.

Three Poems Richard Price

Wake Up and Sleep

Drowsy finalising the blueprint,
drowsy verifying the footprint.
Drowsy in data entry,
drowsy on checkpoint sentry,
drowsy and missing the asset-stripping on Dead Street.

Half-asleep, fingertipping the spreadsheet,
thumbing the defective directory
of on-the-mind on-the-mend half-attended ex's.
Half-asleep and just holding on
to the handholds in the homemade purgatory
of six-of-one custody fro-and-to vexes.
Half asleep quoting chapter and hexes
from the ratified sleepwalking directive.

Wake up outside your conscientious waking dream,
wake up and sleep.
...


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