Another Word for Blanket

As euphemisms go, we are clothed
in something more than sleep. A blanket

owned by my grandmother protects
us from the chill of a winter night.

Children we have known named
their bedclothes, but this has been

too many places – cedar chests,
closets, spare room beds, and his

large double where my grandfather
wound his octogenarian body

while dying on hot summer nights.
His body wouldn’t warm itself.

Where are those days now when life
asked less of us and covered us 

as we dreamed about courage 
and the world lay down with us 

and sang us softly to sleep in wool.
Life never rests. It sighs and spins,

and pulls its edge to its side of night
and when we hold it up we see

a million tiny stars in the weave
and think we are wrapped in heaven.

Bruce Meyer

Bruce Meyer is the author of 70 books of short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. His stories have won or been shortlisted for numerous national and international prizes including this year's Lynn Fraser Fiction Prize from Freefall, the Fish Fiction Prize (IRE), the Bath Short Story Prize, the Carter V. Cooper Prize for Fiction, and a special Editor's commendation from the Edinburgh Flash Fiction Prize, His most recent collections of fiction are "Toast Soldiers" (Crowsnest Books), "Down in the Ground" (Guernica Editions) and the forthcoming collection of flash fiction, "Sweet Things" (Mosaic Press), and a collection of longer stories, "Magnetic Dogs" (Guernica). With Michael Mirolla, he co-edited the forthcoming anthology, "This Will Only Take a Minute" (Guernica) which is the first Canadian anthology of flash fiction. He lives in Barrie, Ontario, and is Professor of Communications at Georgian College.