First Edit: Dreamless

[flowerburgers]

Dreamless

Sleep infects my brain until he starts to cry. (Who?)
Then dark stumbling, light's blinding help, (I like this a lot)
his soothing a nightly occurrence.
His little hands reach
with the greatest necessity I've ever known. (Could this be condensed to "His little hands reach / with great necessity"? Keep things more condensed? Just an idea.)
Palms press again my shoulders,
his wordless commands a small reassurance
that all is not lost. (This is abstract and leans towards cliche, but I like the sentiment) 
I write my worries in notebooks,
carelessly left on cluttered desks, (The alliteration here felt a little heavy-handed to me...but I'm picky when it comes to alliteration)
words like "Autism" and "delayed" poor rhyme choices. (This line read to me as awkward and unclear, but I really like the direction you took with this poem. Interesting stuff!)
Too many of my pens gone dry and tossed aside... (Great last line)

This poem is a sequel of sorts to "Sleepless". I'm wondering if it works as its own piece, or if I should merge the two poems? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Richard,

I liked the premise here, although you might make clearer early on that the narrator is talking about a child--presumably his child? It became apparent quickly as I got deeper into the poem, but my first question when I began to read was, "Who is he?" I also wonder if you could spend more time exploring the child's disability, showing it more concretely rather than giving the reader that information near the end. I thought he was an infant until I got to that line. Now I wonder if the boy is older? I didn't read him as disabled until you told us.