The T'ai Chi of Putting a Sleeping Child to Bed by Alexandra Lytton Regalado
In the lull of evening, your son nested in your arms
becomes heavier and with a sigh his body
sloughs off its weight like an anchor into deep sleep,
until his small breath is the only thing that exists.
And as you move the slow dance through the dim hall
to his bedroom and bow down to deliver his sleeping form,
arms parting, each muscle defining its arc and release—
you remember the feeling of childhood,
traveling beneath a full moon,
your mother's unmistakable laugh, a field of wild grass,
windows open and the night rushing in
as headlights trace wands oflight across your face—
there was a narrative you were braiding,
meanings you wanted to pluck from the air,
but the touch of a hand eased it from your brow
and with each stroke you waded further
into the certainty of knowing your sleeping form
would be ushered by good and true arms
into the calm ocean that is your bed. Art by Timo Kuilder
Recommended listening: Akele Hum Nadiya Kinare from Raincoat The Greatest Gift - Sufjan Stevens
Links of the Day: Interview: Ronny Sen 2018 Moon Calendar (I want! :o ) Zacharie Gaudrillot-Roy’s isolated Façades leave an eerie architectural absence Photography: “I Knew I Could Be a Voice for Nature”—Four Decades at National Geographic