Beds

 

From deflated air mattresses

to beds so big not even a pillow and a body

could fill it

 

From lush green jungles

and scary ditches in the backyard

holding the world’s scariest monsters

to flowering deserts with

tiny yellow flowers blooming between

the spines of cacti

To prickly pines and old oak trees

that lose all their leaves

yet still provide the most fragrant flowers

The buzz of bees

Hinting at the blossoms’ entice

 

From a house so full the couch was a bed

to an apartment so tiny

the living room took up ninety nine percent

of the whole space

with upstairs neighbors that

erased sleep from their vocabularies

pet snakes escaping downstairs for some

peace

and quiet

To a mansion so large

exhales in awe

of how in the world anybody could fill

any of the rooms inside

 

But we did fill them,

little by little,

 

First a couch.

Then a new bed,

moving the old one to the Guest Room.

 

Repeat.

 

Moving and moving

From Tropical Paradise

To Hollywood’s Neighbor,

To The Tundra that ceased to be for just

a tiny,

short while

 

Enough to stop and reflect on

All the beds I’ve rested my head.

 

And how to express

all my life's journeys

than through a few stanzas

and the flourish of simple words.