Sleep Journal

The story that needs to be told
is the one recited in his sleep. 
He wants to carry it into the day
but its words won’t wake with him. 

Now when he speaks, it sounds
like a cracked bell, and the doors
he opens ache on their hinges,
an echo diminishing, the trace 

of a road erased from a map. 
When he asks for directions, 
they always lead to where the rain
drives its nails into the ground.

JUAN PABLO MOBILI

Juan Pablo Mobili was born in Buenos Aires and adopted by New York. He has published extensively in the United States, as well as internationally. He’s a recipient of several Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. His chapbook Contraband was published in 2022. In 2025, he was appointed Poet Laureate of Rockland County, New York.