Sleep
is stillness paused in stone,
the bronze cast of a posed god,
Eros, whose face, limbs,
have softened to childhood.
It is the breath before prayer,
a window staining its church
with sacred light; or secular,
a cashpoint glowing
in a late night precinct.
Sleep is air, the secrecy
of a barn owl in flight;
her pale pulse. It is the last gasp
of smoke from a candle, blown
for a wish; a seed puffed
from its stem to stray beyond sight.
unpublished poem, © Ella Duffy 2019, used by permission of the author.