Sleepwalker

By Alina Sayre

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Seams tatter while my body ages, greys.
No night or morning. Empty months ooze by.
My soul sleeps, adrift through shoreless days.

Babies swell, are born outside of public gaze,
eat yams, grow teeth, learn to laugh and cry.
Seams tatter while my body ages, greys.

Suspended animation is this phase.
Time, a lifeless board-pinned butterfly.
My soul sleeps, adrift through shoreless days.

Push poisoned hugs and smiles six feet away.
Blue surgical paper swallows all but eyes.
Seams tatter while my body ages, greys.

Frozen in our separate amber day by day,
for love we sacrifice—at least we try.
My soul sleeps, adrift through shoreless days.

Sun warms my sealed eyelids with its rays.
I dream of waking under cloudless skies.
Seams tatter while my body ages, greys.
My soul sleeps, adrift through shoreless days.

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Alina Sayre is the award-winning author of five books and a graduate student of theopoetics at Bethany Theological Seminary. You can learn more about her work here. You can also hear more about 'Sleepwalker' here.

Alina's other work on Foreshadow:

• Vocation as a Gift (Interview, March 2022)
• Keeping Vigil (Poetry, March 2022)

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Related work on Foreshadow:

• In the Time of Covid-19 (Poetry by Rosemary Power)