The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: Etching by Goya
To Sleep
Snow bleaches the land and the thickly sewn
seam of the horizon, a skyline etched
in magenta, evokes fears that cannot
be quenched, is it a sunset or a fire?
How many words are there for corruption?
How many fears do we live with daily?
Climate change, nuclear war, diseases.
Even monkeys get angry when given
cucumbers when other monkeys get fruit.
It’s the same old story, Cain and Abel
someone believing another gets more.
That is why reason must remain awake
why our young men and women must not
sleep to dream of bats and owls as monsters.
The Discerning Woman's Gallery of Verse 