January 30, 2026

what a crazy day
was today
was this morning;
waking up at 4
to get out the door before 5
to arrive deep into new jersey just after 6
so kip could be in delaware for a meeting by 8-ish
and i could get home
and get a nap
and be mildly ready for a day
at some point
just to have kip leave delaware at noon
be in a car then on a train around 2
and get back to me just before 3
to get home
take the dog out
and crash and burn
because
even with naps
and exercise
and relatively chill commutes,
the change in sleep schedule really really really
took it out of us
and we were dead to the world
by 6:30pm
[but didn’t want to go to bed
for fear of freaking out our bodies’ rhythms
a second evening in a row
so
just go to bed around 9
and be asleep by 10
and maybe the 6:00 alarm
will come in handy
on tomorrow’s saturday
morning

November 20, 2025

evening poems
while william shatner
tells me all the unexplained mysteries
i should care about

but i simply
don’t

~~~

big yawns
and split-up sleep
and hopefully getting
the cat to eat
or take her meds
at least

[almost done with this trip
and i’m so excited to sleep
in my own bed
once again]

~~~

but seeing people has been absolutely lovely —
i wouldn’t exchange that
for anything

[even eight uninterrupted hours]

October 12, 2025

another night
of waking up at 1/2/3/4 in the morning
to stress
to discomfort
to the panic at the state of the world
and the state of my mind
and this would all be fine
if i could just
fall back
to sleep
like i so recently used to

but apparently i’m back to
high school
college
teenage
early 20’s hj
where i struggle to fall asleep
and i struggle to stay asleep
and every moment i wish i was asleep
i panic about not getting enough sleep
and everything
always feels
so much
worse
in the nighttime

i considered waking kip up
to talk with them
hold them
have them hold me
to see
if having someone right there with me
would be any help at all
and i think, if i had panicked myself any harder
any more
any longer
i might have

but somehow
i finally
fell back
to sleep

how did i survive damn near a decade
like this???

[i was miserable the whole time
that’s how]

[i don’t want to be that miserable
again]

May 28, 2025

frustrations
and stress
and an almost good day yesterday
which should have lent itself to
an almost good sleep last night

but instead, it was some of the worst sleep i’ve had
in a month or two or three
[or more]

i suppose i shouldn’t discount
the amount that stress
impacts my own nighttime
half-waking ponderings…

March 14, 2024

a hassle of a night:
neither of us comfortable
neither of us falling asleep
[though we remain
quite sleepy]

the giggles take us,
then the frustrations,
then the crosswords
which usually lull us
instead carry us through the two-o’clock hour
of finding right answers
and finishing this past sunday’s puzzle

downstairs
with the puppy and
today’s crossword
[today today, since it is far past midnight]
to cuddle on the couch
snack in hand
trying to find where sleep might land

it finally does
[with interruptions, yes,
and puppy hassles]
but dreams do take us
eventually
dragging us
into a reasonable hour for awakeness

and here comes another
fretful
day

January 17, 2022

windy nights
and nightmares,
the storm of the century
(or at least of the year so far)
though probably no great catastrophes
or losses
except the loss of any restful sleep
and the catastrophes made up
in our minds:
big thuds
(was it real?)
giant wasps
(totally not real, right?)
and smart thieves using the sound of the storm
to cover any footfalls or break-in attempts
(logic says no one would want to be out in this
crazy
giant drip rain wet snow in the cold windy climate,
but boy do our imaginations
run away with us,
and our dreams take us
exactly to the place(s) we fear
most
and give us the fright
of our life
(or at least
of the night)
and now
everyone
[dog,
cat,
kip, and kip]
needs a nap.
)