Poem: This Is How You Fix Yourself

“If you love someone, let them sleep.”

Anonymous

Countless jokes have been made about this.

How sleep is the one stop cure for all our problems.

Because, come on, if you sleep it off then you’re bound to feel better in the morning.

Human beings should after all work exactly like machines.

When something doesn’t work, don’t we suggest that we switch it off and turn it back on again?

Why should human beings be any different?

When the world doesn’t go your way, just sleep off.

It doesn’t matter that there’s someone who might be breaking.

Because hey, as long as you get your beauty sleep, all will be right with the world!

Who cares that there are questions and troubles gnawing at them,

Eating them up from inside! But you would shrug your shoulders and ask them to sleep.

That is the solution to everything after all: sleep.

The one thing that is supposed to fix everything –

Your mood swings, your broken heart and even

The fact you are sometimes awake at night.

Just sleep.

Everything else can wait a little longer.

Sleep.

You’ll feel so much better in the morning!

What if I cannot sleep?

What if the very reason I’m awake at night,

Hammering away at my laptop, is fast asleep?

Am I supposed to completely switch off the part of me that worries endlessly –

Because hey, sleep can cure everything!

Sometimes it cannot.

Sometimes all you can do is, let the other person sleep.

When they finally wake up and ask you if you slept well last night

You are not expected to tell them the truth.

You are supposed to lie and tell them, “Of course, I did.

I slept wonderfully well last night. And now everything is fine.”

They need never know how broken you are, 

Or how the night was truly spent.

Because as long as they think you slept just as well as they did,

Everything is right in their world. J