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25th April, 2025

Friday Poem – ‘Sleeping in a Shaking City’ by Cath Drake

Photo of a city as night falls, its lights streaked in the reflection on the river.

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Sleeping in a Shaking City’ by Cath Drake from her collection The Shaking City.

Sleeping in a Shaking City
I’ll tell you how there is one chair then another and that’s called sitting together.
I’ll tell you about small things hidden under beds or in yoghurt containers dug into gardens.
About a stray cat who tiptoes across the back fence and through the tiny bathroom window.
I’ll tell you how thin I feel; how the rain falls and falls but still the charcoal stains won’t wash off.
Do you remember summers when cricket matches lasted forever and seagulls tacker-tacked on the roof?
Or watching ants for hours, imagining the risk of falling if each stair was so enormous?
How does a city gather its skirts before the dip of night? Its powerdrills and refrigeration whirring –
there must be somewhere in this town that doesn’t shudder, somewhere I can properly sleep.