The Salamander and the Nightingale

Yet my heart is racing

trying in vain

to outrun my mind

and I lie here

awake

awake

pouring over the day

stabbing at my thoughts

with a salamander tongue

legs restless

eager to run

nowhere to run to

 

I hear a small night sound

her room

awake

awake

I hear her pad

down her bunkbed steps

I hear her turn the bathroom light on

though I know

she will keep her eyes closed

I crane my ears

to hear her hum

my drowsy nightingale

 

then

it is morning