Don’t forget to breathe

They say that death’s twin sister is sleep

So I don’t forget to breathe

I count butterflies instead of sheep

To sleep, perhaps to dream,

But never to mistake one twin

For the other

So I don’t forget to breathe

The wrong twin is the mean twin

The twin that takes you places

You don’t want to go

No dreamscape of easy escape

But that dark space where lost souls go,

So I don’t forget to breathe

But there is beauty in that dark twin

Just as there is beauty in the dark

Of night, a slumbering infant

Winged like cupid, crossed-legged

Yoga-posed, wreath of poppies

On its bare head

The reflected lamp of madam liberty

Upside down in the dark waters

Of this harbor of ours

As tempting a sleep

As a bite from Eve’s apple is,

Love’s embrace, our last embrace

And perhaps the last

Embrace we ever need.

But don’t forget to breathe