Masquerade

Sleep is essential for our being. It repairs and restores our mind and body. To quote Shakespeare, “sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care…” Yet it doesn’t come easy to all. This one’s for those people, like me, who seek sleep but…in vain!

Sleep is like sound of a nearby spring
pure and uninterrupted
music to ears..
Sleep brings with itself calm of the moon
not too bright and yet not dark
soothes the mind..
Sleep tastes like honey
silky and smooth
envelopes in itself..
Sleep feels like the softest feathers
light and tender
casts a spell..
Sleep smells of the earth after rain
heady and intoxicating
you want to lose yourself in it..
Sleep is the ultimate concoction.
It heals..cures..restores..
And it eludes.
It eludes me.
Refuses to take me in its arms..
its like that mysterious lover
who knows me but remains fugacious.
He calls out my name in the darkness
lovingly..even seductively…
but disappears as I come close!
Its like being at a masquerade ball..
dancing with someone unknown..
wanting more intimacy..
dying to explore him a little more..
but he fades away..just like that!
Vanishes into thin air!
So it is with me and sleep..
It takes me where I long to be.
Rocks me in its arms
till I’m like a baby
content and droopy..
falling down the cliff of wakefulness
into the sea of sleep
And there it leaves me!
Just like the masked man at the ball
sleepless..restless..fretful!!