Don’t Go Back To Sleep

You wonder why
Would they make a child's toy as fragile as that doll?
It was your sister's
You knew it wasn't yours to take
And you were not unaware of consequences
You weren't mean or spiteful
You weren't jealous
It was just you had hands
That knew how to break

Don't go back to sleep

Now there's a woman sleeping there beside you
And she's lovely, so lovely
Reach out, take her sweet soft face between your hands
And she doesn't even stir
That's how much she trusts you
And it fills you with
A complicated longing
And makes your frightened
For her

Don't go back to sleep
Don't go back

Once you loved a woman
Who turned away from you to sleep
You could not find your way
Into her dreams
So you'd watch her bones gleaming white
Through her thin, thin skin
And her sharp little shoulder blades
Lift and fall as wings

©1998 Annie Gallup