Category: Sleep

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Everyday Experience

I blearily crawl from my bed every morn
And greet the new day with a shudder;
I scratch, yawn, and ask myself why was I born?
One answer’ s as good as anudder.

“TONIGHT is the night I go early to bed”,
As I grope for that sock–have you seen it?
“One’s not at one’s best when one gets up half-dead,
TONIGHT I shall sleep!” (And I mean it)

As day, though, wears on, resolution wears off,
And, as the evening approaches,
At my firm declaration politely I scoff,
And my worse self my better reproaches.

Until, ,after dark, I’ve forgotten about
My wozzle-eyed self of the morning,
And use every excuse that’s at hand to stay out
Of the bed which I should be adorning.

So go away now, great tempting yawn–
I’ll greet you tomorrow again at dawn.

*****************
OR
So, leave me, Yawn; and to my sorrow
I’ll bid you “bah” first thing tomorrow.

by Ray Romine Saturday, May 8, 1943

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Engineering Feet

I greet each fresh dew-spangled dawn
With scowl and wild convulsive yawn;
I punch the pillow savagely,
And wish it were not six, but three;
I hope some messy, drastic harm
Might fall up on my good alarm;
I stretch full length, and scratch my scalp,
And tell those birds to climb an Alp;
Then, wishing with a heart-felt sob
That some Laplander had my job,
I give a final heave and shout.
The day is won: I’m up and out!

by Ray Romine Friday, January 23, 1953

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Delayed Action

Whodunnits rarely thrill and prod
One, it is my contention;
They rather tend to make me nod
In unrapt inattention.

Such tomes, though, when midnight has passed,
Will make my flesh grow creepy
If, when I lay one down at last,
I find that I’m not sleepy.

by Ray Romine Sunday, January 28, 1951

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Bed Spread

There is this to be said about eating in bed:
While it’s messy, of course, and it’s lacking
Refinement precisely, it takes care of nicely
The nap one desires after snacking.

by Ray Romine Sunday, September 4, 1949