Upright Midnight

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Upright Midnight

Our night’s rest should meander, releasing us to dreams,
but my sleep took me on a trip down other sorts of streams
with rapids, eddies, waterfalls that jarred me rough awake.
I think that just one night like it is all that I could take.
Whenever I lay prone, I had another bout of coughing—
with one hack executed, another in the offing. 
I could not lay my head down to soothe myself to sleep.
Instead I slept bolt upright, my covers in a heap
around me on the sofa as a cough jarred me awake.
Sleeping upright on the sofa does not sweet dreaming make. 
I longed for my soft bed and former slumbering meanders
through crisp rows of wheat stalks and banks of oleanders
in search of something still unknown, a peaceful all-night search
for those soulful comforts I never found at church.
My mother’s laughter once again, my father’s joking ways
waiting just around the bend of this nightly maze.
Instead, I’ve barely three hours sleep in between my wheezes—
my dreams propelled by cyclones instead of gentle breezes.
The cold germ is not neighborly. It visits when it pleases
and brings unwanted hostess gifts of drips and coughs and sneezes.

As you may have guessed, I’ve come down with a miserable cold. Two poems in one night, one while I was still trying to stay in bed, then another after I moved to sit upright on the couch which at least furnished a half hour of sleep now and then between the coughing bouts.  The prompt today is meander.

24 thoughts on “Upright Midnight”

  7. rugby843

    Feel better, I see you already have a variety of fluids to keep drinking, so good for you! It’s about this time I start craving something horrible for me. Don’t you love sneezing on the computer? Keep wipes handy!😂

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  10. lynnstrough

    Your blog only gives me the choice to “like.” I like your poem a lot, but do not “like” the fact that you have a cold!! Hope you get over it quick! Hot toddies are nice, in that even if they don’t work, they make you feel warm and fuzzy

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    1. lifelessons Post author

      Hi Lynn. Yolanda made me go to the dr. today and glad I did. Feel a little bit better but still absolutely zero energy. It was nice having you here and thanks for the final dinner. Let me know where you are next alighting.

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