This, Too - Edit3

[dukealien]

edit 3;

Last night I nodded off
with television looking on–
flat-screen wonders, songs, and wars
played without me just the same.
I rose, back bent and sore,
at first begrudging time not spent in bed...
then smiled, acknowledging
this, too, was sleep.

I’ll rise from sleep another night
while this world,
its wars and rumors, songs and getting
churn along just fine
in my final absence.
Then I’ll glance down
(I look so peaceful lying there)
and smile, discovering
this, too, is rest.

---

Thanks to the further critiques of @Richard and @billy pinpointing the problem line.  Hope its replacement isn't overkill .

To @Richard specifically, the rose/red idea seemed a bit too much like the just-escaped stiff play.  As to your other suggestion,

I'm not trying to stress similarities between sleep and death so much as that the latter's permanent.  TV as memento mori?  Well, it illustrates everything else for us these days.  Hope the linkup of wars with peacefulness is a sufficient continuity in place of sleep and dreams.