Sleepless Night in Iceland
I wake quickly
The mattress growling
Like an animal below the bed
The light blazes a second
He maps his way to the bathroom
We are in a small room
Six sleeping crates
Bunk beds like coffins
Ours a double.
Sweating in our hot tomb I strip off my socks, fling covers aside
Touching my sleeping book
Angry at the world.
What do I care about foreign assassins
Shooting their victims three times in the face
My own domestic killer
Home grown, up close and personal is
Right here in our bed
Pointing his gun in both directions
One bullet for his body
One for my heart.
I don't need fiction
Reality tells its own horror story.
Returned, he soon snores softly
Gentle, like he is.
I pull the quilt across us like armor
And turn to face the demon of this night
Slayer of my sleep
The Goliath in the room.
With bare feet and fists
I sling my first stone.
About this poem
I wrote this poem 9 years ago. I was visiting Iceland with my husband who was dying of bone cancer.
Font size:
Written on October 26, 2014
Submitted by eliz0459 on October 27, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 41 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDEEFGHIJKLMNOCLAPQAAONRSETU |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 843 |
Words | 168 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 30 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Sleepless Night in Iceland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/173103/sleepless-night-in-iceland>.
Discuss the poem Sleepless Night in Iceland with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In