The Fainting Couch

The Fainting Couch*

By Margaret Holt

September 4, 2011

Everyone old enough to think about Sleep

Knows it comes in different types:

Snippets, Fits, Fanciful, Fantastical.

Place matters.

Just ask Goldilocks or R. Van Winkle if you don’t believe me.

Sometimes with sounds,

Light Puffs to Sawmills.

The lucky few find the special place

A Fainting Couch

Which they “fall out” or into

When the forces of fatigue

Overpower the will of their eyes.

Well beyond yawns they “fall out” or into

Their Fainting Couch

Relinquishing completely into its sweet, light embrace.

*Inspired by my “sister” Joan Burke following an exhausting journey delightfully resolved in good slumber