Plea for a Good Night's Rest

There are thick stars up above
Where the trees part themselves
Thick dust among many
Corks lined up on the shelf
There are bats in the attic we share
There is smoke to kill mosquitoes
Waiting just above to drink our blood
And gas in the lamp that we light
When the sun goes down
My love wakes shaking with nightmare
And the night air pulls in close around
Come revenant, come, come ye gentle host,
To my patient hip and across our sleeping coasts.
Lay down your mantle, shot through with gold,
That we may lie again, here in sweet repose.
Rest your arms down around your oars now
And hear how the night continues on alive and well.
When how rare the bird, how still the wind!
And we still within it sigh and shift and turn,
Saying,
Sleep she comes to steal the ones who
Fill their glass and leave the rest,
Whose teeth get brushed, who eat enough,
And who know how to treat their friends.
How long this night seems with
No sign of a bright dream to guide us toward the day.
Come revenant, come, come ye gentle host.
To my patient hip and across our sleeping coasts.
Lay down your mantle, shot through with gold,
That we may lie again, here in sweet repose.