Lowering light slants through windows once bright,
Dissolves in darkness so slowly, so deep.
Long day thus drags into yet longer night
That grants me but meager, but fitful sleep.
Is it not enough to struggle all day?
To labor, falter, to give up—to fail!
But when, defeated and collapsed, I lay
And I wait, long-sought rest does not avail.
Because then my mind fights battle anew,
Then do my dreams become something to dread.
For then do worries and fears that break through
Chase me again: my soul once more is bled.
My only hope to rid such wretched care
Rests in my Lord: to Him, abiding prayer.
David Wester is a professor and research scientist with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. His essays and poems have appeared in The Catholic Leader, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, The Imaginative Conservative, Crisis Magazine, and First Things.