Night-time reverie

How does sleep come to us? Do we go around dark alleys calling out for it? Or do we hound it down throughout the day, hoping that at the very end of it, when we come back home, it will waiting by the doorstep with a sheepish grin on its face, asking us the obvious, were you looking for me, dear? Or do we stand very still, very very still alongside the turn, the turn of the day, holding our breaths and then, pounce on it the moment we hear its rhythmic, almost dreamy crawl along the pebbled pathway? Or then maybe, we go looking for it with flashbulbs in our eyes, dimming away and we racing against time to find it and wear it before total darkness, or nightfall…whichever comes first. We find it in a deep dark corner, feasting on the darkened loneliness and its expression is that of a deer caught in headlights. Oh no, not again. I shall be all worn out and weary again tomorrow morning, it curses and mutters under its breath as it is summoned to us. And then, sometimes, we set up a board game with an unmarked marker, a Mr. X or S (if you may) and we follow it with logic and chalked out plans and strategies. It goes undercover(s), traverses boundaries of reality and imagination without any authentication and sometimes, emerges for a smallish glimpse or is heard out loud, momentarily, maybe a snore or even a whimper..and then disappears again in our sub-conscious. It escapes our hold with its formless agility. Its next move unpredictable, it slips through the invincible fortress of our mindgames like a virus on the loose. Unstoppable, unattainable and yet, playing the game to be caught up with in the end. Else, how will the chase begin yet again, when we sacrifice yet another sun on the horizon, burn more stars to light up another night to keep a watch for the elusive, magical elixir called sleep. Only this will take us away from life and reality.