The child lies restless watching dimming shadows
The dance of sometimes headlit windows circling
A trick of cones or psyche ever dark’ning
At the edges of his vision shrinking
The husband lies with eyes wide open staring
A thousand fears and failures swirl inside him
Beside his sleeping wife his soullight burns dim
His wisdom shared in daylight now is haunting
His father rasping ratt’ling staring —
The son bends forward whispers that all is well
But now he fears his own breath his own hell
Permission given and then he left and sleep is ever from him flying
The darkness closes in on us at all times.
We feed it with our shame. It eats our fear.
Falling asleep is so hard, it’s easy as dying.