Quelling demons

late at night
while the city sleeps
and harmless dreams
play themselves out
on gray familiar streets
she plies her craft
with pen and notebook
writing poems
to quell the demons
inside her
those nagging thoughts
insisting she has nothing
worth dancing
across the blank pages
but she perseveres
takes a lesson from stars
burning in the night sky
draws inspiration

from a half moon
dreaming itself full
and the words come
fast and fluently
they tell of sorrow
how hearts so easily
are broken
how love can fool
the hungry
lines racing rhythms
line to line
the hours pass
but she pretends
she sits outside of time
that tugs at her sleeve
preferring instead to trade
the body’s rest ritual
for a poet's comforting peace

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