How do you sleep

How do you sleep

Is it a measure of discontent

Whittling down the hours

Pacing the floor

Wearing out the carpet

Drinking the last of the whisky

Tearing pages from an old diary

Reading Percy Shelley

Wondering what happened

To the likely lads

Gazing at the stars

Counting out your money

Do you sleep like a baby

Waking every once in a while

To burp and fart

Whimper a little

Before filling your mouth

With a thumb

Wake with a start when the boards crack

Sit up all night

In a chair with the light out

Holding a golf club

Afraid of home invasion

After you read a flyer

Warning residents to take care

Be aware

Of the increase in crime

Wishing it was America

Where you could stand your ground

Thankful it isn’t

When the day breaks

And the milkman calls

How do you sleep

When you feel guilty

For living

When so many are not

Do only bad guys survive

To feel sad about being alive

And do they outgrow

The need of a conscience

How do you sleep

Might not be the question

It might be better to ask

What you do to prove

That no matter how

You get through the night

Awake or asleep

Makes no mind

If you are open at least in part

To the miracle of life

And the possibility

Of change.