Dec 22
Sleeping Parents, Wakeful Children (Dacey)
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Sleeping Parents, Wakeful Children, by Phillip Dacey (1939-)
When our parents were sleeping
We brought them gifts
It was a whispering time
The great bodies lain down
Upon the long bed
The deep sighs adrift
Through the upper rooms
It was a whispering time
When the gods slept
And we made gifts for them
With paints paper and tiny
Scissors safe for us
Masks and rings
Obscure magical things
In the halted hour
In the still afternoon
The anger asleep
And the jokes we didn’t understand
The violent love
That carried our weather
All subsided to these
Two vulnerable ones
Their hands and mouths
Open like babes’
Their heads high
In the pillowy clouds
For all we knew dreaming us
Sneaking in
Lest they woke and discovered
Our love our fear
How we thrilled to appease
Praise and thank
Them in secret
My sister and I
Approaching the border
The edge of the platform
Where the gods murmured
So precise in our placement
Of these our constructions
Frivolous fair
The gifts on the skirts
Of their lives for surprise
Then turning away
Lips and fingers a cross
When they opened their eyes
They would never know how
When or why
They would never know
Who we were