An Afternoon Nap

I lay me down in my well-defended city
A fortress of walls impenetrable
And expect repose from work and duty
Only to be assaulted, to find myself waking
To a sudden and unlooked for battle
Of wits and emotion and intellect.

Phantoms appear out of the grey mist
And I wrestle with the devil and his angels
As well as my own personal fears
And contrivances, half of which
I have formed out of the bowels of my own
Wild and untamed mind.

And joys interspersed push me on
To fight in this hazy world for what is right
As I find myself making every possible mistake
And sometimes being the ideal self
I have always wished for and then
I feel the sweat and the wild thrashing.

When I open my eyes to the truth
I realize that the victory in this forgotten world
Is but in vain, that I have wrestled
With a fate that I will never face
And sorting through this web of nonexistent experiences
I rejoice to face a world much less challenging.