What Do You Think At Nighttime?
When it’s dark outside, and all you can hear
is the wind in your branches do you wish
you were planted somewhere else,
that you were a different tree,
in a different garden?
Do you look down at your branches
and imagine them breaking my fall?
If you had been in another garden,
with another boy, on another day,
would you have let him go too?
Would he also lie in bed at night
and whisper to you on the other side
of the glass in his bedroom window?
Or were you meant to be in my garden,
were you meant to watch me fall?
is the wind in your branches do you wish
you were planted somewhere else,
that you were a different tree,
in a different garden?
Do you look down at your branches
and imagine them breaking my fall?
If you had been in another garden,
with another boy, on another day,
would you have let him go too?
Would he also lie in bed at night
and whisper to you on the other side
of the glass in his bedroom window?
Or were you meant to be in my garden,
were you meant to watch me fall?
This poem is copyright (©) Stephen Lightbown 2024
About the Writer
Stephen Lightbown
Stephen Lightbown is a poet who writes extensively but not exclusively about life as a wheelchair user. Stephen has been widely published and is the author of two poetry collections for adults: Only Air and The Last Custodian (both from Burning Eye Books). In 2023 he will publish his first poetry book for children through Troika Books. He lives in Bristol in the UK.
