In Mixed Meter, A Meditation Upon Alarm Clocks:


The healing sleep of which Macbeth spoke enviously…

SHATTERED!

The metal ////cans kicked across the room
A giant light fixture hurting my face
Because I thought a top rack a safer space
Large men yelling things my mother would not approve:

“REVEILLE! REVEILLE! REVEILLE!
RISE AND SHINE, AND GREET THE NEW DAY!
LET GO YER ////S AND GRAB YER SOCKS!
GET OFF YER LAZY ///ES YA SORRY SQUIRRELS!”

A hundred and sixty bare feet hit the deck
In perfect Navy unison at 03-my-God-is-this-real-00

And somehow, all these many years later
The soft ding-**** of a tiny MePhone
Sounds even worse