{"id":85692,"date":"2023-04-19T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/article\/sole-unquiet-thing\/"},"modified":"2024-03-22T09:18:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T13:18:49","slug":"sole-unquiet-thing","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/article\/sole-unquiet-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Sole unquiet thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Afraid to sleep tonight alone, he joins us
\nIn our bed, scrambling over pillow peaks
\nAnd furrows of bunched-up blanket.
\nOvertired at this hour, he clowns for us
\nAnd laughs. He balls the sheet and smiles,
\n\u201cLook, a wave!\u201d For him, it is a wave, and back<\/p>\n

He falls, sunk into white. He lolls between us
\nAnd falls asleep while scritching my new beard
\nWith tiny hands. I drift a while but wake
\nTo find his hand in mine. Where is he now?
\nHe\u2019s far from me, I feel, the more we touch.
\nI smile to wind up here in our very own darkness<\/p>\n

With him. My dreams are thefts, my life halfway
\nUsed up. He pulls his hand from mine, abounding
\nIn waves, cut off from me in his own dream.
\nTime bobs in me\u2014the past mere jetsam\u2014
\nMy tired body a dirty tide struggling
\nAgainst some moon of my own lost joys,<\/p>\n

So much exhaustion of earth and empires.
\nWhat journeys has he undertaken while we slept?
\nSoon drizzly light will seep its way through blinds,
\nLeaking into the clockless hour before
\nThe alarm and coming of day that sours
\nOur time and all the hopes we\u2019ve sorrowed over.<\/p>\n

Sleep well. One day you\u2019ll swim these storms yourself.
\nThere will be snow to cover the wet stones,
\nAnd mists arisen to steal the horizons.
\nRest, my son. There is always sunlight and sea,
\nAnd gales that sweep the margins of our world,
\nAnd tall trees lit by lightning in the night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1499,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[660],"department_id":[554],"issue":[2875],"section":[],"acf":{"participants":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":null,"value":null,"field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_65fd9fbaa0408","label":"Authors","name":"participants","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"user","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_647e2b3c6941d","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"role":"","return_format":"array","multiple":1,"allow_null":0,"bidirectional":0,"bidirectional_target":[],"_name":"participants","_valid":1}},"page_number":{"simple_value_formatted":31,"value_formatted":31,"value":"31","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_647e2bc0c860c","label":"Page 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