Not able to sleep:
a pool party happening
across the ravine –

all the happy screaming
bubbly voices
rising, falling,

washing the tired
lines of the day
from my eyes.

Is there something to celebrate
on a dark night that
has lasted far too long?

I would give up all
remaining sleep to be giddy
with the adolescent fervor I hear

and to pass it to the wind
which can’t keep secrets
and make you listen too

as I am listening now
for an invitation
to join in,

to celebrate so many bodies
all plunging together
into vast new worlds

unafraid.

An older poem, first published in North Shore Magazine in 2007 (and written a decade earlier).