Sing Me To Sleep 

When the quiet finally comes for me

I hope it doesn’t have to shout.

I hope it finds me sitting still,

breathing slow,

no fists clenched around old hours.

I hope I’ve learned by then

that most wars 

were never wars at all

just frightened people

protecting their wounds

with sharp words and stubborn silence.

I want to meet my ending

without a ledger in my hands,

no names carved into blame,

no tallies of who I failed or who failed me,

who owed me more than they gave.

Let me have spent my anger

while it still mattered,

let it be gone like a storm

that did its damage

and moved on without apology.

I don’t want to arrive heavy.

I don’t want resentment in my pockets,

or old arguments rehearsing themselves

one last time in the dark.

 

They’ve had enough of me already.

If there are people I loved badly,

let them remember the love

and forget the clumsiness.

If there are people who hurt me,

let the hurt loosen its grip

now that it has nothing left to teach.

I don’t need everyone to have been kind.

I just don’t want to be keeping score.

Let my forgiveness be imperfect

but honest,

the kind that says,

I was tired of carrying this,

so I put it down.

When my name is spoken afterwards,

I hope it doesn’t echo 

with unfinished fights.

Let it be said plainly,

without caveats or warnings,

without anyone 

feeling they must explain me.

Let there be no one 

I’m avoiding at the end,

no one I hope isn’t in the room.

Only faces I can look at

without lowering my eyes.

If fear comes, and it will

let it find me lighter 

than I used to be.

Let it find me having already made peace

with my own smallness,

my mistakes,

my attempts that didn’t land.

I don’t need a perfect life behind me.

I just want a clean heart inside me.

So when the moment asks,

Are you ready?

I hope I can answer quietly,

without bravado,

without regret dragging its heels.

Just this:

I loved as best I could.

I let go when I finally understood.

I leave with no enemies worth naming.

I leave with no hard feelings left to defend.

And that, I think,

is more than 

enough.

By Jonah Libertine Gill

©️ Libertine13 

08/02/2026