This summer, Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown’s children’s classic, turned 75. This bedtime story has enchanted millions of kids and parents for generations. To mark the occasion, Inquest is publishing a reimagined version of this work by poet and activist El Jones, based on Brown’s original, which is included in the author’s forthcoming collection, Abolitionist Intimacies.
In a provincial jail there’s a little room
With a toilet and a sink and a smell of mildew
And a slit of a window with a sliver of the moon
And a radio on a shelf playing a tune
And a metal cot, and a metal slot
And a night that’s either too cold or too hot
And an officer in the spot by the stairs
And three more guards sitting in chairs
And the shadow of the laws that put people in there
And the eye of the camera watching you sitting
And a photocopied picture of your mother and children
And a heart with a hole for the loved ones you’re missing
And restless dreams where you wake up shivering
And a door with a lock, and a window with bars
And a corner of the sky showing just one star
And a comb, and a brush, and a toilet that won’t flush
And a guard on his rounds ordering hush
So good night room like a little tomb
Good night window barely showing the moon
Good night laws that aren’t changing soon
Good night radio, good night news
Good night cot, good night slot
Good night down in solitary, where the world forgot
Good night sheets tied up in a knot
Good night bad dreams and regretful thoughts
Good night clanging doors and the camera shot
Good night locks, good night clocks
Good night countdown to the day you get out of the box
Good night mildew, good night mould
Good night lights on all night down in the hole
Good night heart with its little hole
Good night heat, good night cold
Good night foam mattress, good night comb
Good night to the crumpled picture of home
Good night dripping sink and toilet that won’t flush
And good night to the officers ordering hush
Good night patrols, good night stare
Good night outside, goodnight air
Good night love, good night care
Good night prisoners everywhere.
Excerpted from Abolitionist Intimacies. Copyright © 2022 by El Jones. Reprinted with permission from Fernwood Publishing.
Header image: Jabez Samuel/Unsplash
