Keeping to My Habits

by John Herlihy

I am so very accustomed keeping to my habits,

I could hardly live if I were to relinquished them.

My habits have a way of keeping me on course,

As little duties I perform them without remorse.

When I wake up in the morning I get out of bed,

Not a second to linger, I turn off the alarm instead.

I brush my teeth sparingly as if cleaning by stealth,

Not wishing to exaggerate, to preserve my wealth.

I leave the house for work at the stroke of eight,

With an instinctive dread of arriving anywhere late.

As for patience in waiting, I can count the hours,

All has a rightful time, buds awakening as flowers.

Again by force of habit, I never eat between meals,

Find sweet anticipation in dinner as I cool my heels.

In wearing my shirts, I always button the top button,

The same reason I go hungry, avoid seeming a glutton.

Online, a friend sees me fully dressed as if at a task

I’m all dressed up, nowhere to go, why do you ask

When others are talking, I never like to interrupt

When speaking if I take a breath, I am interrupted

The scaffolding of my days held together rather tight,

As moon and stars hold together the veneer of night.

I am not a magician with a hat filled with white rabbits,

I am an old-fashioned man with my old-fashioned habits.

As old as winter frost that appears in early December,

Still living on the same old street, I need not remember.

Routine habits are the glue that keep my life together.

Body, mind, spirit unite to make me feel light as a feather.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Wednesday 24 December 2025