sleep

I've had trouble sleeping in my own bed for years now, but there are places/ways I sleep that are sometimes a little unorthodox.

sleep eludes me

here. infrequently,

i sleep sometimes on the bus

or i sleep on trains,

trams, or in someone's car.

i slept, too, on the planes

that carried me to you

and away again.

 

i sleep

sometimes on beds

in foreign countries

where the sheets are strangers,

over-friendly and thick

with the history of a thousand bodies;

still,

safely strangers.

 

i sleep sometimes

in full light: a carnival

of luminescence; on

a bench in the park

where dogs walk people,

on floors where carpets

or floorboards reassure me:

the ground is solid.

 

i do sleep

sometimes. i sleep sometimes

sprawled across the grass

                           on you both,

in the memory of your arms,

and bathed in the murmur of your voices

and the beating of your hearts.

Author's Note

All polite/relevant reviews are welcome - especially constructive critique, but also including grammar and spelling corrections, although please bear in mind that the (lack of) capitalisation in this piece is intentional. And thank you for reading/leaving a review!

Reviews

[ShameemAkhtar]

Lovely poem

I do sense some underlines though,

I loved the inversions that you used

'on
a bench in the park
where dogs walk people,'

brilliant

'here, i sleep infrequently.' This line could have been written. Infrequently somehow breaks the flow I feel. (very subjective comment I have to admit)

Overall great imagery, loved it

[Nyida Strong]

Well done... Everyone needs to sleep, it just depends on how. Are you comfortable enough to sleep anywhere, any when? Or do you require certain comforts? In Hamlet, the question of sleep is raised, though it was a euphemism for death. Either was this was a very good poem, one that I connected with quite easily.

N. Strong

[Larry Dyson]

USE OF A UNIVERSAL NEED AND TOPIC..AS THE METHOD ARTICLE OF CONVEYANCE...we all sleep or want to and you have shared emotionally how it affects you...does it make you dream and how?