“My Sleeping Child” by Craig Cornish, tied for second place in Cyndi MacMillan’s Contemporary Figurative Artiste Stephanie Deshpande: Contemporary Free Rhyme Poetry Contest on PoetrySoup.com. His poem was inspired by my painting “Sleeping Child.” To see all the contest winners, see related post: Contemporary Free Rhyme Poetry Contest.

MY SLEEPING CHILD
By Craig Cornish

I don’t recall what I dreamt of –
did I think upon myself
with contempt or
was sleep replete
with perfect places.

I don’t recall what I thought,
when down the rabbit hole
I fought with
who to trust –
too many smiles and faces.

I don’t really recall
the depths of fear
and all the
demons I created
that chased me till dawn.

But this is not me,
it is my child
and she is,
though curled like in my womb,
the artist of her own song.

But, I wish so
to climb into her dreams
and scold all
that try
to do her wrong.