By Julie Bruck

Night-time is for sleeping, we'd chant
To set the clock, to relax her fisted hold
On the crib bars, the minute terry-bound feet
Testing their new purchase on the mattress.
We were teaching independence, self-soothing,
How to be alone. If that fails, the book
Advised, There is no more today, a phrase
So thick with terror, it took hold immediately.
Baby slips off the ledge and we stand by.
She sank into the dark without a cry.