The Test

was a simple test to confirm
what we knew he did not know

One question was Which is a part of your body:
      A hat, a hand or a sock?

His answer was A sock.

The motion was elegance
      grace in the gradual
      suspense in the inevitable
as his head, as all of him, slipped
      closer to the table
as I waited for the pencil to stop
precisely filling in the circle marking his answer
      now with a line attached
       a string tied to a balloon
            rising to a cloud
      a tether remembering shapes
            it once touched

it was as if there was singing
      though it was not a tune nor dissonance
it was readable in that it was watchable
especially with closed
      or closing
            eyes
noting the comfort of familiar

            lullabies

still, he fought the sleep
though with each drift I asked
      did he dream when he went?
and were they different
      from what he told me each day
before he took the dollar I offered
      hid it in his hand for a minute
      then folded it into
            his sock