Nocturnal Confer

Sleep morphed into a shooting star
It flew out of the window
Out into the open air
Of the dark night
And held out its hand
For me to follow it!

Giggling, uncaring, unkempt,
I just shrugged everything off
And ran after it!

The shadows of the dark night
Were full of hidden aches
Men slept, in the cold
With tears in their eyes
And with famine raging their stomachs
Some were full of disease
Some were full of dirt
Whichever,
They all smelled of despair
A foul, putrid, dingy smell
Which could easily be taken for Death!

Women walked on pavements,
Their hearts broken with those dreams
They have had, once when their eyes
Still saw innocence
All around them!

They walked on merely to be able to sustain
Themselves, or their children,
Or even their families
As these sat in gloomy rooms
Feeling, again, the despair, as it gripped them
Tight in its claws, so like eagles preying on rabbits!

Those who were indoors,
Pretended to be happy
They smiled with their eyes and flashed
Their warmth all around
Even if, in the middle of their hearts,
There were, an evil monster,
Spawning and growing fuller,
Feeding on their hidden negativity!

Some children slept, content, as their parents
Fulfilled their wishes!
Others dreamed of adulthood,
When they themselves would conquer life
And would do that,
Which their parents had not been able to do for them!

Sleep looked at me ever so silently
And in its eyes
I saw pain, written with my own tears!
Why,
Is life in this plane that which I am supposed to love?
Is this why, I be deemed as fragile
If I choose to say,
I like it not and wish to be freed?

Sleep hushed me with its hand blocking my mouth
It morphed into the Sandman
And I yawned back into waking state
Only to wonder
At how did the dawn come so fast?

Anoucheka Gangabissoon is a Primary School Educator in Mauritius. She writes poetry and short stories as hobby. She considers writing to be the meaning of her life as she has always been influenced by all the great writers and wishes to be, like them, immortalized in her words. Her works can be read on poetrysoup.com and she had also appeared in various literary magazines like SETU, Different Truths, Dissident Voice, In Between Hangovers Press, WISH Press, Tuck’s Magazine, Blue Mountain Review, among others. She has also been published in Duane’s Poetree and also in two anthologies for the Immagine and Poesia group. Her poems are often placed in free online contests Read other articles by Anoucheka.