Lullaby
--Paulann Petersen 

Now the hour is black, the moments
invisible. I have kept the night
awake with hunger. Want and must
jostle within me, turning my body
from side to side to side. 

Whirling beyond my sight
are the stars. Beyond my heartbeat
a single voice rings. Like a gull
on an updraft, its effortless note,
this word that floats- sleep. 

Night is a darkness only to eyes
that lie open. Sleep sleep.
Clothed in silk of borrowed light,
a moon already rises
on dream's jagged horizon.