I want to sleep

I want to sleep.

I have images burned on my brain that will never leave me. As the horror is escalating, each day I wake to think that nothing could be worse than what I have seen, yet the day is filled with unimaginable brutality. A part of me never wants to get used to these images and I hope I continue to be shocked. We should never get used to this. This should never be part of anybody’s normal.

One image that will stay with me for the rest of my life was of a young girl who had just been pulled from the rubble. She was dazed but quiet. Her one wish was to sleep. In a world where sleep is not possible due to the drones, the bombs and the screams, the desire to sleep, perhaps to die, must be overpowering.

I want to sleep

Sleep, sleep, I want to sleep.

Into slumber, let me softly fall,

so I may sit with my forgotten dreams,

and for just one night

not hear my mother’s screams.

Sleep, sleep, I want to sleep.

Let me close my eyes and never wake.

In sleep, I do more than just survive

I live, I hope, I eat, I smile.

To sleep, to die, both easier than being alive.

Sleep, sleep, I want to sleep.