My Crowded Bed

 

 

 

 

  

 My Crowded Bed

 

Every night I fall asleep with them:

the dead, those living yet so very distant,

all old friends, family.

 

They come when my dreams call them,

or they show up uninvited 

on the front porch of my mind,

where they knock or ring until I answer.

 

Some have been there for so long.

These feel so comfortable

just making themselves at home, settling in.

 

I can spread my limbs out

as much as I want,

but the bed is still so crowded.

I’m surprised the mattress has not grown saggy.

 

Yet, for all my complaining,

I hope they keep up the knocking,

and the ringing

because they are the ones I love, 

and they help me endure the dark.

 

 

Linda Imbler

 

Examples of Linda’s poetry and a listing of publications can be found at lindaspoetryblog.blogspot.com. Linda is an avid reader, classical guitar player, and a practitioner of both Yoga and Tai Chi.  In, addition, she helps her husband, a Luthier, build acoustic guitars.  She lives in Wichita, Kansas, U.S.A.  She enjoys her 200-gallon saltwater reef tank wherein resides her 21 year old yellow tang.  Linda’s published paperback poetry collections include Big Questions, Little Sleep,  Big Questions, Little Sleep: Second Edition, Lost and Found, Red Is The Sunrise, Bus Lights, Travel Sights: Nashville and Back, and Spica’s Frequency. She has four e-books published by Soma Publishing;  The Sea’s Secret Song, Pairings, which is a hybrid ebook of short fiction and poetry, That Fifth Element, and Per Quindecim. Linda has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and five Best Of The Nets.