Prompt from 2016 Marathon: Write a poem that contains one or more of the following common phrases but uses them in a different context than they are usually used. Ideally you would use more than one of the phrases, or repeatedly use the same phrase.

“Welcome home”
“Thank you”
“Excuse me”
“Have a nice day”
“Pardon me”
“How are you?”

Sometimes the thoughts crowding into the surprisingly limited space of my mind at night mill about, brushing against one another, pushing through the narrow aisles and seeking space to stand and breathe.
Pardon me.
Wherever or whatever keeps those thoughts carefully hidden during the bright and open hours of the day cannot hold them back when the darkness falls and the barriers fade to wisps of transparent smoke.
Excuse me.
Like the entirety of a bat colony taking flight from their cave of upside-down docility, these thoughts wing about, lacking precision, disdaining focus, calling out for chaotic collaboration.
Pardon me.
While a single entity calls for quiet, for the cacophony to subside in favor of the welcoming cavern of empty space that cradles sleep, the crowd laughs and jeers, sobs and stomps, cries out for the attention each one craves.
Excuse me.
The party lingers through the early morning hours, every uninvited guest promising to take their leave before lapsing into yet another telling of the story everyone else already knows by heart.
Pardon me.
And finally, as dawn’s massaging fingers creep above the horizon, those raucous, self-serving thoughts begin to stretch, and yawn, and slip away into their private, unreachable realm.
Welcome home.