sleeps.
From Zoroaster and Empedocles
and Nietzsche in his own neighborhood
a few blocks away in time he’s learned
that special kind of sleeping they call
being awake and quiet and doing nothing,
especially not thinking, even his mother
used to say sleep with eyes open
darling, then you’ll really see. What did
she know? Why did it take Persia, Greece,
Switzerland to remind him of that
simple thing he always knew?
Sleep wide-eyed, open-minded sleep
intimate with whatever passes
casting any random thought
aside, ignore the seductions
of causality, break the chains of inference.
Sleep lively, miss nothing, follow nothing,
anything that moves or seems to mean,
that’s just children playing on the lawn.
They’ll be gone soon. The lawn remains.
Study the lawn. Keep your mind pure
till ordinary sleep comes along
and relaxes you into the dark. The day too
will tell you many things, just as long as
you are wise enough to ask no questions.

1 November 2020