many kids my age don’t like to sleep.

the scream and whine at their parents and beg to stay up later.

im not like other kids my age. my parents say im different.

I love to sleep and wait all day till I get told that its time to close my eyes again.

my friends don’t know why I like to sleep and I tell them it’s cause it’s relaxing.

but when im asleep I cannot hear the constant screams and I get to dream about what life would be like if I lived somewhere else.

when im asleep I don’t have to worry on whether or not my dad will find my bad grade and yell at me again.

whenever I sleep i feel the bruises and scrapes on my body feel lighter as if I never even had them as I forget of what life is like outside of the bed.

sleep is like the embodiment of my mother who shields me from the hits that come more often than daily.

my father says im not manly and that I need to man up and I can’t use the word beautiful or pretty or what not but whenever im asleep I can label myself as whatever.

my sleep doesn’t have a gender yet perfers to be referred to as a beauty.

maybe when I wake up from my slumber my fathers yells will have softened, my fathers eyes will have shut, and maybe even put in a coffin.

it’s not nice to think these thoughts but it feels hard not too when he keeps me up at night and makes me feel hurt inside my heart everytime he leaves my room.

i can’t wait to sleep tonight.

maybe this time he won’t try to wake me up again.

-aaron leopold “smith”

“im not a violent dog. i don’t know why i bite.”