Wheeler Lane, poems by Julia Wendell, 1998

Lullabye

Each morning with breaths sour from sleep
they join us in our boat of wool & linen
that sways gently, taking on the extra cargo.
The long night breaks along the drowsy shore.

They have not yet learned
to check the weather & hour,
to let the dog out, & so on,
caring only as they do for the lull

of water on water. Slipping
under the white sail,
I take them back into the warmth
of my body.

The sun inches up the sky, though it is not
yet shining in their sleep;
their world still cradled by kindness,
the most navigable of human seas.

—(excerpted from Wheeler Lane, Julia Wendell. Igneus Press (1998))