Dave Bonta's short poem moves through a night of stillness, and the title helps explain why. "Sushupti" is a Sanskrit word for deep, dreamless sleep, though the poem itself never spells that out. It opens with "a sleeping rain," a soft, steady shower that seems to be resting even as it falls. The speaker, meanwhile, sits with a "mouth still / after dining and talking," so the noise of the evening has settled into silence. Then deer arrive in the dark, quietly, as if the night has let them in.
The final lines turn inward: "where should I be / if not in my mind." It reads as calm acceptance rather than worry. Everything outside is hushed, so the speaker simply stays inside their own thoughts. The mood is peaceful and drowsy, with a faint, dreamlike strangeness. The poem suggests that being alone with your mind can feel like the most natural place to be.