Sleep, Rest, Dreaming, and all the beautiful deaths they lie between. by Adrian Darwent

Revisit the right of perennial rest

Before familiar fading flared the fire

Before me, Marx, Madonna, and Macbeth

Before strung dolls danced to their dreamt desire

Before their ticking told the time for tea

When we would live like lithium light bulbs

And we will always wander past ennui

And we will heighten hell to hear out Hobbes

And we won’t only talk of what’s observed

Until grain gathers against gunning geese

Until crunched acres cut the crawling curve

Until blight stumbles back upon its beast

Until we nestle into Night’s sole need

Subside now, smother sound in ceaseless sleep.