Let it rest as the shabbos
is called “rest”
because it returns
each thing to its root.*

Set it down gently
like our mothers
with the fluid grace
of dancers rocked us

to sleep in their arms
then rose to glide across floors
through doorways,
into the dark of the rooms

where our cribs waited.
They leaned over railings
slid us among the folds
of our blankets little

by little, cupping our small
heads in their palms
releasing them gentle now
gentle, as we continued

to swim through breath
by breath dreaming.
Returned in this way
to our root, we return

each night to the dream
questions that inspire us
to rise at dawn through
our bodies into the light.
                                    3/6/2021
*based on teachings in Sefat Emet: The Language of Truth, Rabbi Arthur Green