Thursday Poem

Lullaby for a Daughter

Go to sleep. Night is a coal pit
full of black water —
……… night is a dark cloud
full of warm rain.

Go to sleep. Night is a flower
resting from bees —
……… night's a green sea
swollen with fish.

Go to sleep. Night is a white moon
riding her mare —
……… night's a bright sun
burned to black cinder.

Go to sleep,
night's come,
cat's days,
owl's day,
star's feast of praise,
moon to reign over
her sweet subject, dark.

by Jim Harrision
from The Shape of the Journey
Copper Canyon Press, 1998