I Just Hope I Can Sleep
by Dorothea Lasky

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I hope I can sleep and forget your name
I just hope that we drift apart
I hope that you stop writing me, like before
I hope you discount the things I believe in
I hope that you don’t even consider them
I hope that the rainbows go back and forth
And you don’t stop them for me
And that I am in the midst of the tangled rainbow
And you aren’t even thinking of me
I hope that when the land completely lit by rainbows
Is my new home you forget to ask me for my address
I hope that when the light shines on me
I don’t look like anything or anyone
You think that you know
I hope that when you spot me in a field of honey
You keep on walking, walking past the honey
And drown yourself in a body of water
No I hope that there is a body of water
Which makes sense to you
An ocean of your own making

“I Just Hope I Can Sleep,” from ROME by Dorothea Lasky. Copyright © 2016 by Dorothea Lasky. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.