you are
not a graceful
sleeper but i have learned
to love your sprawled sighs when
i can’t
sleep.
Bedtime Stories
I
read to you because my mother read to me.
And
in those moments I felt as loved and as safe as a strangely paranoid and
anxious child could feel
-Certainly
more safe than the rote prayers that my grandmother made me parrot back to her
made me feel-
And
for years
-long
after I'd stopped remembering to pray-
I couldn't fall asleep without reading.