For those who love reading in bed

'Reading in Bed' by Diana Hendry
THE GUARDIAN, Saturday 7 March 2009

Best bonus of the solitary life,
late hours, the stack beside the bed as good
as a new lover any night. But now
there's all the courtesies to do, of bed
-side lights and sex and sleep and who's the first
to shut up shop. Tonight it's me. Your thrill
-er, Scorcher, clearly is. I snuggle in,
conscious that you're close but miles away
(in Florida, to be precise). I lie
and listen as the turn of pages slows
down time. The hush-hush sound your thumb's rub makes
is like the lap of waves that lulls me off,
tucked up in self while you, on night watch, learn
whodunnit, why and when and worlds roll by.