Sleep* Poem by indira babbellapati

I enjoy myself when I see

You slowly slipping into sleep

Even while I keep talking to you



It amazes me to see

Sleep, like a lantern-genie

Appearing before you with folded hands

As and when you command



Just as an infant wraps

The mother confidently and steadily

Sleep seeks refuge in you



I enjoy myself when I see

Sleep suddenly coming from nowhere, spreads its wings

On your lashes



The same sleep to grace me, I need—

To hunt desires

Fears to haunt

To tire myself running

Into me, from me



Like doors at the mercy of gales

My thoughts will have to make my

Lashes flutter a hundred times



Finally sometime around wee hours

Sleep hits the disconcerted shores of my heart

Of brewing hurricane

That weakens at unknown early hours



Sleep to me is an agonizing death

It’s a great experience

To see sleep possess you

With such felicity



*Original in Telugu by Vinnakota Ravishankar



09oct2010

21.28hrs