Image on Loan

Challenges and obstacles bang sleep’s cupboard doors
Open and shut, flung wide and slammed hard
That cupboard still seems bare—even of the bard

Then an image reposes
It fills one shelf, and though all else is empty, it shrinks
The rest, so all that is seen is what flutters

It is when the cupboard door gently closes
For the day has entered looking for stragglers
That the image fades amid the closeness of links

Then for the day no thoughts open that door
Until returning and thinking again
When the image tatters heartstrings once more