April 26, 2011 “If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger. “ Muriel Rukeyser

Sestina With Child

I wrote and sang a lullaby

because there was a little girl

who needed quite a lot of comfort

to help her go to sleep.

I sang about the moon

and stars we see at night.

Then sometime in the night

I heard that lovely lullaby

that told of a silvery moon

and pushed the little girl

into the magic time of sleep.

It gives us all such comfort.

And when I receive comfort

awake or in the night

I have a dreamless sleep

with little need for a lullaby,

just a smile from a little girl

and maybe a peek at the moon.

I gaze up at the moon

drawing all the comfort

I might sing to the girl

when she needs it in the night.

I put electric stars in my lullaby

so she might drowse to sleep.

Imagine eyes closed in sleep

a face lit by the moon.

T’will be her only lullaby

And fill her with the comfort

That doesn’t come with night.

All this for the little girl.

A woman remembers, “When I was a girl

And was restless in my sleep,

I tossed and turned throughout the night

Unless there was a moon

To lighten the dark and give me comfort.

It was like my personal lullaby.”

In the long night—creating a lullaby—

for the sweetest sleep and continuing comfort,

give all girls a slice of the moon.

If you'd like to write a sestina: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestina