First Place Poetry, Barbara Dockery

invisibility

you are the interrupted silence that noise hides
when i need a quiet moment
the last sixty seconds of sleep just before waking
lingering
faltered and hesitating
somewhere between confusion and consciousness.

you drift gently, only momentarily
a stolen snowflake kissing the ground
leaving no trace of what was
growing
into the purpose of a snowman never built.

you advance as time just after it passes
stealing away my good intentions
you become the clock
ticking away the past
clicking beyond the present.

you intrude
the last breath as my mind goes blank,
blackened by empty
invisible
invincible
as avoidance, regret,
and the sense of things not seen.

~ barbara dockery