Does this weather make it easier?

Sleeping was seldom difficult

in a chair while in college 

on a subway train

on my back when my leg was in bandages and my knee in tatters

in East coast Summer heat, tortured by mosquitos

in the same room in January, with frost on the inside of the windows

in snow, in a tent, with a Summer weight sleeping bag and no mat

under a hedge in a churchyard in Boston after missing the last train 

on a ferry from Brindisi to Athens

on a flight from SanFrancisco to Sydney

None of that scared me

but it was fear that kept me awake 

when I couldn’t do my homework, in Montessori school and in grad school

being publicly stupid and weak once again as the school year began

knowing that I would hurt her even more than I already had

Sleeping weather is what they call this

When the cool of the evening makes you pull up a blanket for the first time in months

and the smile on your face is the one the cat wears when she sleeps

A stray can sleep anywhere with a smile on its face

what it can’t do is go home

I pull her and the blanket closer

we have both strayed