O Sleep

O Sleep, come for me, I will go quietly,
where the roof doesn’t leak in my heart.
 O Sleep, come for me,
I’m a boat, sprung a leak,
 I’ll hide and you’ll seek a new start

for me. Until dawn, I’ll be too gone
 to care how grey the day is.
The dreams that it chases away,
 they stay asleep.

O Sleep, come for me,
I will come willingly,
 like a leaf from a tree in October.
O Sleep, come for me, I wait hopefully.
 I was drunk on a dream, now I’m sober.

From now until dawn,
it can’t be too long for me,
I count the hours
 ‘til I sleep with your feet by my feet,
your breath on my cheek, asleep.

Lisa Hannigan