Old Men And Disrupted Sleep
/Old Men And Disrupted Sleep
Old men pee in the middle of the night,
Oh yes, and go mad. That, too.
There is no kingly howling to their visit to the loo.
Just a shuffle, groping for a light, then back to bed.
Perchance to dream, but probably not.
A fleeting thought escapes: Is this it?
Is this all there is to life?
A turn into the pillows carries them back to a land of sleep
Where daughters never betray them and
Glory fills the mountains with the sound of their name.
Souls grow weary of this mortal coil that binds.
Time to slip off that thread, hopefully, without too much madness.
–Leslie Anneliese
Poetry And Creativity
This poem was born out of an on-line chat with fellow meditators on the topic of waking up in the middle of the night. I offer it with a bow to the powerful poem, Old Men Go Mad At Night, written by Tennessee Williams in 1972 with references to Shakespeare and King Lear.
“Old men go mad at night
but are not Lears”
