Morning and Over Again

Having turned off TV
maybe not for good
some six months ago,
the harried pronouncements
of weather, death and mounting
losses, tumbling profits
eaten savings, seething
unemployment rolls, lost
to me now, mostly, in
creeps a dispatch, alarm
clock prompt, news snatch
erupts from tinny speaker
“sniper suspect John Muhammad”
before a slap to snooze.
So colored is my small sleep
one hour and nine minutes
to work and a full
bladder has me dreaming
thinly of swimming rivers and
“Israeli cease fire agreement”
one hour until and saving
daylight makes it bright now
early morning, smelling of
sheets slept in and swampy
mouth no sleep any longer
so damp dreams gone, cracks
“expanding losses in IT industry”
between curtain and glass, dead
flower droops out there to
dirty porch planks, surrounded
by still unborn shoots straining
from stalk ends.  World out there
spins, gray skies mean rain.
“transition plans for governor elect”
And on it goes, eyes wide now
and knees back creaking I
rise, fully awake and wish to
hear no more from the world
I’ll enter in an hour minus
two snoozes, alarm
in my head says
some things don’t turn off,
for good or otherwise.