Below the window a sheet glows
blue, as boy breathes a dream
melody, soft snores in and out,
his moonlit skin a lunar lavender;
he turns once, twice, sighs in sleep.
Across the room, unseen by the moon
the bed in the corner hidden in shadow
creaks, springs an assonant whine
as a restless sleeper kicks a gray wool blanket
from his soaring in the sky to earth.
Five other beds are gray shapes in the night
two lumpy mounds, two barely outlined bodies
the fifth a frightened dreamer who yelps,
flailing shadowed limbs into moonlight,
brown gray lavender blue
below round brilliance rising
higher and higher in the sky.
This night two boys wait, their breaths paired
below the cry below the snores
below the whine of bedsprings
below the moon’s slow sail through the night.
Turned, their faces are mirrored
one in shadow one in moonlight
counting stars counting snores
counting hours days weeks
their breaths a soft descant
one more night gone
one more night
one more gone
to the canticle of the night.