Sleep

Sleep is a white blanket covering

          the yard, the sidewalks, bending tree branches down

 

Sleep is a silverfish slipping away

          between the pages of a book brought to bed

 

Sleep is the soft hum of a window fan

          lulling sweaty sleepers on a hot, humid night

 

Sleep is a blanket full of glass beads

          each one painted with a tiny closed eye

 

Sleep is a country of which maps

          show only the boundaries, and those uncertain

 

Sleep is a bottle of pills reading

          do not operate heavy machinery

 

Sleep is a black python whose coils

          are smooth as water, irresistible as smoke

 

Sleep is rain on the roof, gurgle in gutters,

          bedroom window perfumed with petrichor

 

Sleep is an old dog curled on a cushion

          with twitching paws; he barks with his mouth shut

 

Sleep is a crow prophesying on the windowsill

Sleep is a whale breaching under the boat of day

Sleep is danger and refuge, cure and disease,

end and beginning.

 

Books Available
Dervish Lions
The Day of My First Driving Lesson
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside