Your creaking wooden boards
make it near impossible
to get past you unheard
but after midnight
I must strain to maintain the sounds of silence.

It is so tiresome
continuing this eggshell walk
throughout the darkened hours
but I cannot bear another
middle of the black conversation
about why I can’t sleep
why I must pace
why I cannot simply lay down beside you
until exhaustion overtakes me.

I quietly wear myself out
alone in absence of light
moving in circles
throughout your home,
falling asleep somewhere random
and different each evening,
simply unable to admit
I can no longer take
your formerly adorable snores.