(for Ellen)

Close your eyelids, feel them fall.
The day you filled with things to do
has lost its light and in your room
a toy-shelf full of drowsing bears
throws shadows on a fading wall.
The night-light shields their eyes but they
will wake and wait – a sleep away.

Close your eyelids, let them lie.
The night is seeping in. Outside
the boo-books hoot a moon that rides
the wind and lights a turning world
that moves your room to morning. Day
and you will wake – a sleep away.

Close your eyes, the door’s ajar
and if the wind should wake you we
are just a call away. You’ll see
the hall-lamp light the far end bear
and then remember that the stars
and moon may move, but we are there
behind the light, a call away.

Close your eyelids, hold them still.
The wind has thinned the stars and fills
the space beyond your window sill
where owls beat slowly home. But soon
our world will face the morning then
your day will wake – at dreaming’s end.