Blue Moon

25) Sleep, part I

Mighty mooneyes sung a berceuse

for me, in the blackened night

Car glow somewhere in the distance

and smattered rain across the window

Peter Pan is flattering flirty Wendy

on the CD player and Poppy is kicking

her paws in a dream somewhere on a coastal walk

with rabbits and pheasants and sniffs.

Mighty mooneyes reflects on my own, I need to turn over

but Poppy is cutting off the circulation in my legs

and the deep blackened night calls my thoughts forwards

in brief sleep, the Lost Boys are building a house around

Wendy. Sleep and then awakened in dark silence, Poppy

is taking up all the room again, my legs dangled off the edge

Uncomfortable, I click play and Peter Pan is flattering flirty Wendy

again on the CD player and Poppy is kicking her paws again

somewhere in a dream far away, small barks, she wakes

and sits up, stares with glassy eyes up at me. I sit up too

and when I kiss her head, she leans back, eyes drifting closed

again, heaves a sigh, life's so hard for puppy-dogs like Poppy.

The Lost Boys are walking around Neverland, looking for Peter

half-conscious, I toss and turn, the pirates are out looking for the Lost Boys

somewhere, Poppy dreams. Anxious, the rain! the wind! Celeste!

no, she is away in her stable for the night, safe, I plump the pillows

backwards the CD, Mrs Darling is tidying up her children's minds

it is the nightly custom of all good mothers.

(Did my maman once do that?)

and the nightlights flicker, yawn and all go out at once.

 

(9th November 2013)