Helen Hoyt

From “Poems of Life and Death”

A Song to Wake Your Dear in the Morning

I KISS the locks of your hair:

Do you feel me there,

Sleepy one?

I will put a kiss on your brow:

Are you waking now?

Won’t you wake, sleepy one?

A kiss on your left eye; on your right—

Closed tight, closed tight!

Oh, you are a hard one to wake!

A kiss on your nose

Where your deep breath goes,

Sleepy one!

Now a kiss for each ear:

Do you hear, do you hear?

Wake, sleepy one!

A kiss for this cheek; a kiss for this:

How many kisses you will miss!

Won’t you wake? Won’t you wake?

Now I come to your lips that I love:

Oh, you are waking! You wake and move!

Sleepy one!

Sleepy one,

My kisses are done.

Oh, you are a hard one to wake!