Every midsummer’s night
our daughter slips out of heaven
and watches us sleep
in a tossed-covers bed.
If either of us woke
we would see her standing there
in her ethereal-spectral form
with twinkling stars in her eyes.
But we never do wake
to see this spectacle
because she comes to see us
in the innocence of sleep.
The type of Adam & Eve sleep
before the Apple
before the introduction
of the knowledge of good and evil.
Our daughter leaves messages
in the guise of hummingbirds
that there is no good or evil.
Thus we should not suffer.
That message is easiest to believe
during the day in the foothills
when we are among piñon jays
and the junipers are thick with berries.
copyright © 2021 Kenneth P. Gurney
Umflop 