When My Daughters Cannot Sleep

by Raymond Sapienza

When My Daughters Cannot Sleep

© Raymond Sapienza

2009

Dedicated To My Granddaughter

On nights when my daughters cannot sleep

I tell them "You should try counting sheep.

Count them jumping over your beds

From this pasture here, where the grass is all gone

To the one over there, where it's luscious and long."

And I, in an effort to return to my book,

Will give them a sigh and stern fatherly look

And then cross my fingers for one final try:

Inevitably one or the other will complain

Of not liking sheep or preferring a song.

"How about horses? Horses that fly?

Horses that fly and horses that run,

Horses that gallivant till morning sun.

Bays and Chestnuts, Sorrels and Roans,

Grays on pilgrimage far from their homes.

Winged wonders dancing

on clouds overhead,

Spry ponies prancing in

rings 'round your beds.

Leaping and jumping

and scampering about,

Soaring and glorying!"

I've started to shout.

"Foals with their

mothers,

Stallions and

Mares

Cavorting and

courting and

racing in pairs!"

By now the children are laughing with glee,

Sleep as far from them as my book is from me,

Singing and dancing a horse-lover's jig,

And Mom at the door, her eyes growing big.

So if children asleep in their beds is your goal,

Don't mention horses, or ponies, or foals.

Stick to sheep counting and calm, quiet songs

And your flock will be dreaming - unlike mine -

Before long.

Parents by Raymond Sapienza

They take their time with little things,

With walks and talks and songs to sing;

With whispering scary bedtime stories

And oiling squeaky dollhouse doors.

Important things like the tying of shoestrings

And cuddling close during thunder and lightning;

A good old horse when it's time to ride;

Easy to find when it's time to hide.

And always there's the rocking chair,

A nickel for every hour there

Would make them very wealthy indeed.

But their riches are in the laughing faces

And beaming little "I Love You" smiles

Which make the jobs of Mommy and Daddy

The most important of their lives.