hymn to sleep

I seek velvet depths to outlast furies of night
which herald the approach of thin exhausted dreams,
i seek the gay and breathless heights
to leap with the joys of the innocent and the fecund of things;
i seek the cool
green-gradual maturity of burgeoning fruits
of bursting buds
i seek the peace of the blossom's fanned petal-lip,
humble and fragrant in sunlight fires
for
life holds its graces in secret
secret places.

O’ this night's a shadowed jewel,
this night's a greedy kiss.
Welcome is a draught of cold
in such stifling thick
to move over thirsty skin
waiting while sleep
with its unicorn-horn of dream, steals in
to settle in that fractious corner and its hooves
strike sparks like stars in its static uncertainty,
like stars in its liminality
and they scatter as glad dust
free of gravity.