A Poem For Today - Epiphenomenon

[kdick...@aol.com]

Epiphenomenon

I spend a long time considering pillowcases.

Which pillowcase does my head want for rest? 

A lace edge so that the cheek does not grow bored? 

 

All night the face turns on its pillow, 

bridging the day gone with its divination of tomorrow. 

The brain sleeps but the body twitches and kicks, 

 

lashes out, steals the sheets, twists the blankets 

into thick, furred knots. Thomas Huxley believed 

the mind’s shrill whistle contributed nothing 

 

to the locomotive body; Plato, that the mind 

knows great truths while the body lives in shadows.

What I know is how sleep releases the body 

 

from me telling it where to put its feet, its fingers, 

how the tongue should roll its Rs, when the teeth 

may bite or gnash. I give it my consideration 

 

of pillowcases, of lotions and textures it may like, 

or farther afield—an actual field—clover against 

the skin. The sound of insects rising as the sun sets, 

 

the head leaned back into a cradle of hands, 

how the head adores the hands though they 

are separated by so much and the jealousy of arms. 

 

Body, I will lay you down beside 

another body you have grown to love. 

I will bid you still in the moments before sleep 

 

and then I will hand you the keys to the house 

and let you spend the night plying all the locks. 

In the morning I will wash you with care 

 

and lead you around and treat you kindly 

and if there is sobbing it is not my sobbing 

and we will both pretend not to hear it

Karen Skolfield

[Isabel Torres-Carrilho]

Intriguing!

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