W W N Poem by Grant House

Earlier today
a blessed sleepiness
came over the world.

Everything stopped.
Even the stoplights
stopped changing
and the cars
slowed down
and stayed still.

Radios got quiet
and the church bell
only got to four
even though
it was eleven o'clock
in the morning.

A mouse
hiding from the cat
was spared.

Friends
walking down the street
just kind of stood there,
not really dazed
but more like
calmly hanging out together
just standing there
next to one another.

Graciela,
who was about to walk over to Juana's house,
slipped into a deep slumber
and immediately
resumed an old dream
that had never been resolved.

In her dream
she wandered off
to a faraway land
where people walk
without having their feet
touch the ground
and their work gets done
just by thinking about it
and hormones they need
to be well-balanced human beings
naturally occur in nature
and are simply
part of the air they breathe.

It lasted no more than a half an hour
but when everything started up again
something had changed.

The mouse slipped away unnoticed back to her babies.
The friends resumed their conversation
but now they were not commiserating.
Instead,
they found themselves
encouraging and reassuring
one another.

Not a single crash occurred as a result
and the driver of the car that cut the other one off
rolled down the window and apologized.

Gracie got up and walked over to Juana's with a fresh spring in her step. Everything was going to be alright after all.

In the years to come
we will take it for granted
And think nothing of it
It will automatically show up
on our calendars and our phones
Like morning and afternoon
Holidays and leap year.

But
earlier today?
Well, that was just a little of what happened
during the first ever
World
Wide
Nap.