I can’t count the number of sleepless nights I’ve had over the last few years—never by intention. How often I’ve watched the darkness fading and the sunrise flourishing. I wrote this poem on such a night/morning.
So early the night bats still skated across the dawn sky—
Their silhouettes racing past in near silence,
The rapid flutter of their wings barely perceptible.
The cloak of night lingered on the shoulders of *Eos.
A misty blanket of ether remained close enough to almost settle the overwrought senses.
Almost.
Feeling the coming morning, songbirds filled the air with their prayers to the light.
They were the true believers, the keepers of faith,
Always giving praise to the sunrise,
Holding the hope for a new day.
I would sing with them if I could find my voice
After a night forsaken by sleep
Amid the turmoil of too much thought, unwritten stories, and unrepentant rhymes
Begging to be expressed and released into the void.
I almost envied the sleepers quiet in their beds,
Those unawakened souls never plagued by the infinite questions,
Unaware of the potency of every sunrise.
Words filled my head unbidden
In this meandering stream, this maddening dream,
Longing for sleep on the edge of daybreak. —Diana Henderson
© 2022 Lillian D. Henderson
*Eos is the Titan goddess who personifies the dawn in Greek mythology.
