I’ve been sick and mostly confined to my bed for the past few days, finally going to the doctor yesterday to get a diagnosis of pneumonia (and to add insult to injury, I have some kind of head cold/sinus infection now, too). As I’ve been laying in my bed, watching TV, reading books, talking to my husband, loving on the cats and surfing the ‘Net, I was reminded of one of my favorite poems from my favorite collection of children’s poetry, A Child’s Garden of Verses. Instead of toys, I now surround myself with the aforementioned things, revisiting The Land of Counterpane:

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;
And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.