Fleur Adcock
The Children Can’t Sleep
The children can’t sleep:
give them some images to play with.
No, not those, not the ones
of the air-raid - they’ll hurt themselves.
Try the next drawer down:
you’ll find some farm animals there -
hill sheep, Herdwick lambs
trotting on the fells, a spring day…
well, all right, perhaps not;
those fluffy clouds may not be healthy.
What about wildlife then?
There ought to be some hedgehogs somewhere,
or perhaps badgers,
if the hedgehogs are all squashed flat.
No, of course, not badgers.
What can I have been thinking of?
And we’ll forget about
the day out in the beech forest
on the shores of that lake:
the water’s not as pure as it looks
and it’s all too clear
what’s been happening to the trees.
We’d better play safe
with the menagerie in the park:
rabbits, guinea-pigs,
aviaries of assorted birds.
Look at the peacock’s tail!
But the children won’t be distracted:
they’re staring transfixed
at one particular enclosure
where a pheasant has found
a rubber band and, mistaking it
for a worm, swallows it,
regrets it, coughs it up again,
discovers it once more,
darts in for the kill, manages
to get it down again,
suffers another disappointment,
regurgitates it,
lights on it with fresh excitement…
That’s enough now, children!
You’ve been awake too long already.
If you don’t feel sleepy
close your eyes anyway, and try;
look at the pictures
inside your heads. There’s nothing more
we can do for you.
And try not to have nightmares this time.
Page(s) 94-95
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