The cheap room slept four,
two beds tucked into a high loft.
My wife slept beside our daughter.
I crawled in on the outside edge
beside my son. I worried myself
to sleep over the steep ladder.
Laughing in his dreams, he woke me.
If you’ve never been roused
by such music, try to imagine
the gentle bells that rang.
Me, I rolled over
and felt his breath on my face.
I held his tender wrist
and listened.
Jim Daniels is the author of several books of poems, including, most recently, Rowing Inland and Street Calligraphy. His latest book of fiction, The Perp Walk, was published by Michigan State University Press in 2019, along with the anthology he edited with M.L. Liebler, RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music.