Sleepless

I lie awake in my bed

straight, like an arrow or a dart.

Hoping to spear sleep

through its soft white underbelly.

Yet thoughts keep circling

like restless swallows

through my troubled mind.

I hear a train rumble like thunder

along the tracks in the distance

and pierce the night with its shriek.

City-bound bodies face the tracks in the morning,

and so do the hurt souls in the night.

Now that the West Gate Bridge is fenced,

the desperate instead catch the front of passing trains.

These thoughts will not help me sleep, so

I seek solace in breathing in time

to the breath of my other, as he slumbers

this night, deeply and peacefully.

A calmness settles, as I listen to the night birds awaken

become morning birds, 

and sing me into the day.

© Jennifer Phillips (All rights reserved)

Old train at Pioneer Settlement - Swan Hill © Jennifer Phillips