3AM:Unfiltered Poems and Stories From the Sleepless Hours. Poetic Journeys, #2

Read a poem a day!Read a poem a day!When the world sleeps, the mind doesn't. These poems and flash stories arrive in the silent, restless hours - where desire, regret, memory, rage, tenderness, and absurdity surface without permission. In the daylight we censor ourselves. At 3AM, the truth walks in uninvited. With a voice that shifts from darkly funny to devastatingly intimate, Charles Harvey pulls the reader inside the other mind - the one that won't let us rest: The neighbor beating his dog in the middle of the night Lovers thinking the worst thoughts at the quietest hour The man who can't find himself until he's half-awake and half-broken Grief and lust sharing the same pillow Doubt, God, loneliness, capitalism, dreams, and death - all wide awake This isn't a book of gentle reflections.
It's a midnight confession booth for readers who know what it means to stare at a ceiling and feel too alive to sleep. Perfect for fans of Essex Hemphill, Patricia Smith, Danez Smith, and spoken-word poets who write with heat, humor, and nerve. Excerpts:The Man in The Moon 1Who's up at 2 am?The midnight oil has long burned outSleep and sex roll restlessOn the worn mattress. Dreams escape the open eyesShadows rattle the doorThree o'clock is the witching hourRed ashes float from the patioEyes across the courtyard catch you breathing.
You look away only to look again. You know the lonely mattress would enjoy the companyAnd your lilac-scented air could use some funk. But the night won't last a lifetime, soYou slip back into your room and wonder, What if there is a man in the moon?A Good DogThe neighbor beats his dog at 3amand he don't stopI hear her tail beating the walland he don't stopShe gnaws on his boneand he don't stopAll night long she whinesand he don't stopHer collar and chain drags the floorand he don't stopShe begs at the tableand he don't stopShe rolls over and plays deadand he don't stopShe fetches his slippersand he don't stopShe trees his birdsand he don't stopShe has his puppiesand he don't stopAll in the wee hours I hearbitch bitch bitchand he don't stop.