her pillow (A Poem)

In Elementary School, on field trips that required long bus rides, kids would always sleep on my shoulder as we returned to school.  For some reason, it would always be a kid whose parent was chaperoning for the trip that day, and they'd always thank me for letting their child rest on my shoulder.  I never thought of it as something for commending - they fell asleep, I was there to catch them.  What was I gonna do, push them onto the floor?  They were tired.  Those instances always resonated with me though, into Middle School and High School.  I guess as I got to grow more jaded with the world, I realized I really could have just pushed their heads off of me, woken them up and made fun of them.  But that was never in me, and that's what this poem's about.

It was actually inspired by a guy friend of mine sleeping on my shoulder this past week, as we were returning from a day at Six Flags, but the gender doesn't matter.  I think a good deal of love is involved in something so simple as letting someone sleep on your shoulder.  In case you faithful readers of mine (all the thousands and millions of you!) haven't noticed, I enjoy simplicity, and the beauty that comes with those things we don't bother noticing because of it.  Letting someone rest their head on your shoulder says so much without saying anything at all - what it says, I'll leave to your discretion, but at least I think it's beautiful.  As for this poem, yeah, it's not perfect, and I'll probably mess with the form more sometime soon, but it gets the idea across. 

I've been pretty lazy with writing lately, so those short stories I promised probably won't be coming any time soon.  It doesn't help that summer's coming to a close, and I'm swamped with plans for hanging out with all my friends and doing all the things we didn't do earlier in the summer.  But short stories are still being worked on, so hopefully some time soon I can post another one.  God, how many times have I said that now.  I at least hope you liked this poem, and there'll probably be another one that only takes 15 seconds to read next week, so I'll see you again then!
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her pillow
by Matthew Stalbaum

Her head on my shoulder:
I've done all I need to
In life, all I'll ever do (vast
Dreams created, and the truth
Written into pretty sonnets & scenes)

will pale
compared to letting
her head rest
letting time go
its way as she
breathes easy I
smile having done
what I can
to let her
sleep.