Ye shall find rest.

Tell me,

Why do we rest, or lie asleep? I wonder at our state.

Why succumb to forms death before that selfsame fate?

Indeed ‘tis strange, how slumber doth with soft wistful allure,

Through tender senses, o’ertake the brain and soulful corp—

At times in such a dreamless frenzy, such frail, ignoble subterfuge.

Impossible, I find, th’assemblage of melodious verse,

When drousiness, so unlike the Muse, wounds and pierces bone through flesh.

Primordial chaos, recalcitrance!

Bondage sweetly yearned for, chains of vast oblivion,

Why can’t ingenious man craft an escape? (As Odysseus fooled even the goddess?)

Oh why do Life’s rare hours leak and bleed for dreams?

When Time, odious eel, slithers past us, it seems;

Like yonder snail chasing its tail in river winding?

Perchance–can I entertain it?

It is not a curse.

Perhaps,

‘Tis but a blessed sister twain.

An angel guised as fain daemon despondent.

Not an invention, our fair foul soul to frustrate,

But pure bespeckled, glitt’ring substrate.

A cape bejeweled with pearly gain,

Not to provoke sterility,

But inspiring teasing, faithful maid–Humility?

Demonstrating lack of Her, (as adulterous lovers uncovered).

For yes, did not Fire birth Sleep as she burned in pre-eternity?

Yes, Sleep, our fiend, is a precious airy willow leaf.

Intent to cloak restlessness with Ease,

To gift the senses ‘fumes of Home’s incense, in medicinal peace.

And even yet, behold!

The Man,

Embracing death, caressing, who but that lady Sleep?

In All, all-Human–save for sin so deep.

Beckoning our slumber’s call,

Leading lambs so little, safely, to a garden wherewithal,

They may safely dwell.

There abiding,

There residing,

In abundant repose upon a rugged bosom.

So—

let us yield to that same urge, with hearts both brave and light,

And find the rest we seek, in triumph every night.

As pelicans who in need, pluck at their mothers’ feathers.

Or infants suckling at the breast—

For God succumbed to rest, and so, I think can we.

Infused with trust, by love,

“find rest”, merely,

If we cling to heav’n above.