During the day you tease some
You tease them till they drool;
During your formal hours
You become a demon with two horns.
Without a fight,
You take away what the young one holds;
And when there is no headrest,
You let the old one throw his head away.
When you work with the breeze,
You work wonders;
You tickle the storekeeper
Till the last good is looted.
When you lay your hands on some
They begin to buzz like bees;
Here is the world heavyweight champion
In the middle of my palms!
When life punches my face
I run to you for comfort;
But when I linger in your bosom,
You begin to hack me in bits.
Here is a poem about sleep. The power of sleep is being discussed throughout the poem.
The first stanza speaks of how sleep could make people start drooling even though it is daytime and when it is night '...your former hours', sleep is said to become a demon with two horns for it has a lot of work to do at that period.
In the second stanza, sleep is said to take what the young one holds without a fight and make the old one throw his head away when he is sleeping while sitting and has no headrest.
The third stanza speaks of sleep working with the breeze. Imagine sleeping where the breeze is blowing! Sleep makes the store keeper unaware till all the goods in the store have been stolen. Sleep also makes some people snore '...buzz like bees' and of course even the world heavyweight champion becomes powerless once he is under the influence of sleep.
The last stanza concludes the poem with the soothing or consoling side of sleep and its side that shows us how to be diligent or fail woefully.
The poem is made up of five stanzas with four lines (a quatrain) each. It employs no rhymes. The poetic devices include personification, simile and hyperbole.