Dreams for Them

do my children lie down at night
in the fountain at city hall
and watch planets fall out of the sky
into their hands?

do they swim through feathers
catch shuttlecocks between their toes
and leap to the tune of parade horns
while ice cream lisps on their cheeks?

these are the dreams for them
that lie under my skin
and come creeping at dawn
when their voices call

at dusk, as cows slow to the barn
and a last robin preens on the lawn
then, then I hear sirens
and pray them away from my infants

should night-terrors assail
and my children lie lonely at night
as it was in their beginning
I curve my body about them