Poetry: Stealing the Somnolence by Mark Tulin

Thanks to Anna Cates and her fine site, Pages Literary Journal, for publishing this poem. Featured photo by Mark Tulin.

Stealing the Somnolence


I don't like traditional soft beds;
beds that have four legs, a spring
and a mattress, a sheet and a cover—
I prefer the alternative,
the freedom of a hammock,
the coarse straw of a barn,
the unpredictability and the darkness,
the rage of sexual politics,
an open window to a moonless sky,
the cold wind of a rural winter,
a nighttime fantasy that goes astray,
a pack of wolves howling on the hill,
to sleep at once on my side and back,
on a bed of nails—stealing the somnolence
from the nectar of a flower.