Hiding under the darkness of night,
hands tightly intertwined,
hushed voices building castles,
breathing life into faraway lands.
Silent giggles in harmony fill the quaint silence
while a dim light from the hall
illuminates our bundle of warmth
that we thought was ever so vast,
like a flower-filled prairie that stretched far past the horizon.
A night where the stars were nowhere to be found,
hiding beneath the comfort of the clouds,
the slow rumbling of trains passing by,
reminded us of home.
Soft lullabies that soothed your nightmares and quelled the creatures hiding in the shadows
as I waited for your breathing to even
before I could turn away and succumb to the welcoming arms of sleep.
Cheeky smiles as footsteps echoed beyond the door that was slightly ajar,
one and two squeezes of our hands meant yes and no,
three meant mom is here,
and four meant mom is gone.
Though we never agreed on three or four’s meaning,
we always fell quiet when we heard the floorboards creak.
The subtleties of the stories we made escape me
slipping away as i dreamt of giants and talking objects
but, still, hidden close to my heart, i remember
the times i made you laugh
and when your smile would feel like the light of the stars.
And though those times have long since passed
the warmth of our hands that lay between us as we slept
and the blankets that hugged us tight during cold nights
lull me to rest once more.
Authors note:
This poem is rooted from the nostalgia I feel about my childhood. When I was younger, I would sleep on the same bed as my siblings. We would come up with make-believe worlds and only went to sleep after we got scolded. If you have siblings, you may find yourself relating to late night stories while hiding under the covers. I wanted to invoke the magical feeling of imagination, especially with the comfort of family nearby. Though the ending is bittersweet, because we have grown out of envisioning dreamlands, the memories still serve as a warm reminder of the wonder of being a child.
