As My World Sleeps

I often find you there at night

as the world around us quietly sleeps,

and pigeons calm their endless cooing from the eaves—

as muffled houses line the streets

and rumbling cars are finally subdued.

Your mother lay in dream, crumpled sheets askew,

while shadows painted mutely on a wall

dance in subtle rhythm to a ceiling fan off kilter.

And darkened hallways lead to quiet rooms

where children snuggle in the zoo

strewn across unkept beds.

The creaking stairs betray the silence—

Creeping down the way to fill an empty cup.

I often find you there,

and wonder who you would've been.

When eyes of blue reflect a passion

for patterned colors on a page—

When depths of brown reflect the song

whose voice keeps time, but shyly—

Or hazel depths become the mirror

of mother's unquenchable fire.

I often find you there...

Pluto's graying brindle face betrays

a wisdom I've misplaced

in scattered memory and dream.

That leads me to a Rainbow

laying snug within his bed.

To pray I never live to find

that this one has an end.

I wonder who you would've been

beside brothers and the sister

that you will never meet

laying peacefully in dream...

and as the world around us quietly sleeps,

and pigeons calm their endless cooing from the eaves.

I often dream that you are there

though you never left the womb.

Copyright © 2021 by Keith E. Sparks Jr.

First Appeared in Impspired Magazine Issue 8.

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