Life

Living is easy with eyes closed 
but when you open them
Really open them

Life
is so bright
   so real
you just want to close them again
pull the covers over your head
          just for a few minutes longer

Please mom!
Just a few more minutes!

The lights            they hurt my eyes
The colours         they are too strong
The sounds         they are too loud
The world            it is too real

I can't deal
with this reality

Please mom
just a few more hours   days   years
in my cocoon of shadows

Before I wake up 
and feel and hear and see
the world as it is
so real
so strong
so bright

So terrifyingly present
So wonderfully strange
So gloriously painful

That I have to scream 
and gasp
and breathe in the lights
of the world 
as    it     is.