Health warning: high in refined carbohydrate
Child sleeping
It's a wonderful thing
to have a child fall asleep in your arms,
to lie there awake,
aware of their sleeping,
against your palm a soft head of hair
while you listen to breathing
like waves on a shore.
That head no bigger than breadfruit
holds forests with wolves and bears,
castles with walls,
the ghosts in the wardrobe,
all cities with lamps
glowing through windows with halos like orange stars,
whale clouds that plunge in an ocean of blue,
the planets that turn in their books,
too soon the things you will not know,
for now all folded
in the soft ball
that has just rolled onto your shoulder.
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