on: ramblings

He lay awake, eyes shut tight, wishing sleep would overtake him. But
when his mania reached a fever pitch, he felt his body vibrating with
a nervous energy. He tossed and turned, wrestling clutches of bed
sheets back and forth. He began to wonder if this was what soldiers
experienced on the eve of battle; if it was this deafening calmness
that kept them up or if it was the looming torrent of chaos that
awaited them on the other side of the evening. His ruminations rattled
incessantly like a marble in a glass jar. He tried his best to focus
on the task at hand, but the vibrations his mind exerted only
exacerbated the prattling thoughts, pulling sleep just out of his
grasp. As racing thoughts jockeyed for position at the forefront of
his consciousness, he began to reason with himself. Perhaps, he
thought, if I can isolate each thought and chew it until it's tender
enough to swallow, I'll be able to sleep. But as he entered the fray,
he found that he couldn't out-pace his own mind. In an almost
reflexive fashion, his thoughts bobbed and weaved like a prize
fighter, avoiding any reasoning he might attack with. And as his mind
counter-attacked, striking him with tirelessly random thoughts from
what seemed like all directions, his consciousness and any hopes he
had of peace that evening were dashed. Eyes braced tightly, he turned
his head from one side to the other on his pillow, seemingly reeling
from the unyielding onslaught his manic ruminations had pressed upon
him.