How Can We Sleep? Poem by Saju Abraham

How does it feel
when your head hits the pillow?
What thoughts you think
when your eyes close?
Can you sleep with all those images?

Emaciated babies screaming to be fed.
Sick babies suck at shrunken breasts
A child with puzzled eyes roam the street.
People slumped against pavement walls,
like images from a UNICEF magazine.
Women raped by armed men.
People unbalanced by rewards of trade in science.

You can pretend to sleep,
but can you get sleep,
when these images fill your heads,
or have you made a compromise?