Before I Slip

Sleep calls me
needs me
and walks me

Like a monk in a dressing gown with a candle
soft footsteps
lead me through corridors of flickering light
to a garden
the garden of my dreams
each atom there
shimmering and growing

My chest rises
naked
on the afternoon bed
so too
does the tiled roof above me
expanding and bending
flexing with my breath
just like all the houses down the road
- out through the open window
all rising
their roofs swelling
as I breathe
then falling and re-shaping
their bow bending walls
like the flexible fibres
of my lungs
and
ribcage

Sleep sings now
and only a cool breeze touches my skin
gently moving hairs on my arms
like fields of wheat grass
swaying in summer afternoons
the crystals of love nestle
and sleep calls me
needs me
and walks me
and I go
for now I am ready
to drift higher and deeper
I am ready
to dance with atoms