Seeking Sleep Poem by Dr. Baishali Bhaumik Mitra

I lie awake
counting the silence
that keeps dripping
in bits and pieces,
caressing the crumpled
creases of the covering,
waiting...
longing...
for sleep.
I touch the hours
with my finger tips
as they pass by,
following the patterns
of some moist memory
that falls like a monotonous
monsoon rain.
I lie awake
searching for sleep.
I seek sleep
for him to embrace my soul,
I beg the velvet darkness
to take me in his lap,
I plead the night stars
to enshrine my eyes and
intoxicate or haze my sight.
As the dusk reconciles
like a gloom over a forlorn cityscape
and grief settles on my soul,
I begin to rummage
for sleep all over again,
like every other night.
And then the silence whispers
into my ears,
saying the search is in vain.
It is pointless to wait
as I would have to walk alone.
There would only be
a few footprints
of nostalgia to accompany.