Sleep Technicians

At Jordan's Furniture the sleep technicians,

so says the ad, are pleased to offer us

the best line—kings, queens, doubles.  Jordan's knows

mattresses; and, blessed with this omniscience,

its modern acolytes of Morpheus

are experts in the science of repose.

They may know mattresses.  They don't know sleep.

Sleep is a gift from God.  And even He

could send us, instead of springs and Polyfil,

cushions of ether spirited from the air,

and still—like the princess battered through a heap

of twenty royal featherbeds—and still

we'd lie awake.  There is no warranty,

even at Jordan's, that covers the sleeve of care.

Deborah Warren

(c) 1999; originally printed in Sparrow.  Reprinted by
permission of the author.