you know I slept <br />twenty years <br />and woke to find <br />all things changed <br /> <br /> <br />when I sleep now, <br />though only a few hours <br />each night, <br />I wonder <br />if it had not been better <br />if I had slept forever <br /> <br /> <br />I had not known <br />trouble in my long sleep; <br />and I was not bewildered <br />by a world <br />that is strange and distant <br />though I move in it all day long <br /> <br /> <br />I had not known <br />any care or worry; <br />nor had I to think where <br />my next meal was to come from <br />or hang over things like <br />what today’s contemporaries <br />fret about: <br />things like retirement funds <br />and aged care; and a will <br />that will be ample and fair <br /> <br /> <br />I had not known <br />people of strange ways <br />when I slept; <br />I had not to condone <br />the conceited and those whose <br />only concern is self-interest; <br />and men and women of twisted emotion <br />and hell-bent on murder and blood <br />and lust; <br />and a lawn that must be trimmed <br /> <br /> <br />and in my bear-sleep <br />I had no encounter <br />with the fool, the arrogant, the ambitious <br />and the tyrant and the greedy; <br />all I knew in my long sleep <br />was quiet, oblivion and bliss <br />and so I ask myself often <br />as I sit in the shade of the tree: <br />I wonder <br />if it had not been better <br />if I had slept forever?<br /><br />Raj Arumugam<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/rip-van-winkle-asks-if-it-d-not-been-better-to-have-slept-forever/
