Another sunny day in paradise...

It is time that I climbed out of bed,
To wipe my face and drag a brush
Across my shaggy head.
Somehow I’ve managed to stumble
Into another impromptu morning of “good evenin’s.”

Sunlight streaks across a pale blue sky,
Makes me squint,
And rub my blurry eyes, turned red.
The remnants of my latest sleepless night,
Insomnia incarnate!

But it’s good to view the world again,
To get outside, to see the sun’s bright rays
Merrily dancing,
Between scattered clouds,
Between leaves of magnolia and oak,
Between the trees themselves
And a dreamscape of stately Uptown houses.

The air stirs just enough to tame
Our prickly-hot mid-summer brains.
The rain
Forever hovering above us,
A lover to some,
An annoying neighbor to others.

With chloroplast the primary hue,
All shades of floral green infused,
I am the gator covered in duckweed,
A slow-moving log
On the surface of a swampy pond.

I float lazily through these,
My familiar streets.
I swim eight blocks to a coffee house
Where the baristas offer treats,
Supplementing my diet
With almandine conversations,
A cup of coffee or a glass of sweet tea.

The caffeine gently shakes me awake.

By now, another raspberry twilight is beginning to sink in
Marking my mid-day, beginning and end
With church bells chiming six o’clock
And another flock of weary work-a-day passengers
Stepping down from the idling street car,
Just down the block.

I gather my inspiration,
Complete my hike for the heart,
Return to my second floor nest,
Where an electrified darkness
Awaits my all-night artisan inclinations.

I do what I do
Until my eyes fill with lead,
The predawn glow
Cast upon my unmade bed,
And to that treacherous slumber
I do eventually succumb.

Dodging dreams of twisted plots,
It is easier to dull the mind,
It is better to be deaf and dumb
Than to feel the steely breathe of death
Every time I close my eyes and yawn.

But that’s my problem…

I’ll be awake again, at the crack of noon
Stirred up
By a scattered handful of grounds keeping goons
Loudly weed-whacking nearby lawns
Or noisily chasing those annoying leaves
Off of our mostly-sunny sidewalks.

Michael S. True
7/23/14 revised 4/20/16