A Poem:

 Sometimes When I Cannot Sleep

   

My thoughts wander to my childhood   where   awake in my twin bed

I watched headlights arch across the ceiling     

When I couldn’t sleep   I peered out the window  counted each car   and yearned

Without knowing the meaning of the word   for someone or something else   

  

Standing bare foot in pajamas  matching the pink flowers on the wallpaper 

I turned the diamond knob of my closet door and climbed over the shoes

I read “The Happy Hollister’s”   and wrote the date on the wall with a pencil

Only a crack of light beneath the door gleamed off the hardwood floor

Wrapped in my grandmother’s turquoise chenille robe

I leaned against the yellow walls that were warm like the sides of an oven after baking

Molly my best doll   stared   open eyed  

A shoe box from my mother’s velvet heels   held my miniature treasures  

A bracelet with jewels like candied almonds   a string of crystal rosary beads and

A purple bug pin I made from a seashell at Brownie scouts.

I could hear the musical voices of the women in my family at the kitchen table

They were laughing   the playing cards   clicked and slapped on the grey Formica top

I knew how much they all loved me    but now    it’s much too quiet and I cannot sleep       

I am the oldest woman in the family    I sit at that table   alone   playing solitaire.   

  

  Emalou King

October 6,  2011