Four AM

(Music is titled “Instructions for Living a Life”, courtesy of Savfk)

It’s 4 AM, I’m awake again.
What have I left undone?
Whoever said my life should be
Always on the run?

I push and pull to get more done.
With barely time to knot my tie.
Turn around, the day is gone;
Left me at a loss to end…

By a rhyme.

I want to do it all in the minutes I have.
Read those books, write someone else’s memoir.
Show the patience of the Parent of the Times.
Pat myself on the back for anything I finish at all

By day’s end, even dishes or my bath.

And nighttime, I look back to see how little got done,
How much I have left to do.

Mostly, I see, in the middle of the night,
All the really big things I passed right over—
Something spiritual, generous, a mitzvah? —
And forgot to do; so they didn’t get done.

By anyone.

And tomorrow is not just another day.
It’s the dawn when everything has to be done.By me.