Question 5
My daughter
hiccups herself to sleep
and I watch my wife
become anxious
and then drift.
I can sit
in this moment
and read Pachinko
until I become absorbed
in boardinghouses.
The night is too
full of danger,
so I watch their chests
rise and fall.
How do you waste sleep?
In weakness
I press my ear
to their mouths
and check for warmth
against my lobes.
If my senses fail me,
I nudge them as if
in accident and close
my eyes in disguise
as I hear them fidget.
– Aaron Kent
Answer 5
My sleep is wasted
in the shatter of breaking news every night –
you’d think it’d be broken by now –
my eyelash is sheared by the shards
but I think I can blink it out
of the corner
of my eye.
The only sheep I can count
are those that show themselves.
Trying to close my eyelids –
the screams are echo-dreams.
– Amanda Butler