O, You Ancient Mighty Sleep! Poem by Eche Ononukwe

You ancient mighty warrior

that dwells in our hypothalamus!

You that lays your heavy hands

like Ghana pepper upon our brows!

Jekyll and Hyde are you;

Mighty too are you

when you cause sweet sleep on us,

sweetness we can nev’r help

ev’n when we ought to rise

to struggle for living!



You are an old English soldier,

the great conqueror of our weak flesh!

You conquer’d Adam in Eden

to produce the moth’r of all living;

You defeat’d the eyes of the three Christian pillars

while their Mast’r was away

to answ’r the suff’ring call of Jerusalem.

You are the provocateur of rest

when the day is spent and dead;

like the Grim Reap’rs, you steal us away,

finding ourselves in the world below and above

aft’r our bodies’ souls have judgment fac’d

before the Holy One.