Charm for Sleep

Ready the downy cradle.
Pull tight the bedclothes. 
Open wide the window.  
Let in the night spirits.

​But slumber does not come. 
Worry spins me awake.
Hypnos, Morpheus, Masters 
of Night; strike me with your sleep!

Borne from this midnight moment,
into the deepening winter 
blackness, into the house 
of the gods, I am born

into the red fox setting stealthy prints in the silver snow
into the basswood bending against the biting wind
into the nightjar dancing unseen in the darkness 
into the moon radiating its wisp of white

Floating upward on the altar 
of the gods the heavens surround me. 
Into their spell I leap,
at peace and once more asleep.

Published in Bramble, October 2018