Sleep

artwork: ralph murre

Sleep                  

by Ed Werstein

taps me on the shoulder
and says she wants

to take me to bed.

I tell her I'm just

going to finish

this chapter and then
I'll join her and

she'll get what she's after.

Sleep is impatient

keeps poking me
insisting I pay her

some attention.

I think she is jealous

of my books.

Sleep slips a mickey

into my herbal tea

and has her way with me.

I wake at three and realize

she's left me again.

She's thrown my book

on the floor

and hasn't even bothered

to turn out the light.

~ first published on Your Daily Poem