3AM Nign
she sang as if looking through the magnifying glass
lullaby’s every heave,
a thesis on slowing down, peeling –
each note, a pit assessing its fullness
lullaby’s underside,
hymn to darkness
(sleep no longer a goal but a side-effect)
of the dream’s reaffirmed primacy
two silences on each side of her
amplifying the song’s timing –
family of three, thickening liquid
poured in and out of the bedroom’s cup
Jake Marmer’s first poetry collection Jazz Talmud was published in 2012.