Monthly Challenge… Early mornings

Early mornings

In The gloom of the early morning light,

My foot begins to shake,

The rest of my body is still asleep,

But my leg is wide-awake.

I can’t roll over onto my side,

And I can’t sit up in bed anymore,

So I wriggle and shuffle as best I can,

Until my toes are touching the floor.

Up on one elbow, count to 5,

This is my new technique,

Grab the mattress with my other hand,

and quickly spread my feet.

I made it, I’m sitting on the edge of the mattress,

My bedside clock says the time is 6.10,

It’s at least an hour and a half before the alarm goes off,

but I’ve no chance getting back to sleep again.

I put on my underwear with a bit of a struggle,

The rest of my body is starting to wake,

I slip on my dressing gown, with a bit of a kerfuffle,

By now everything is starting to shake.

I need to use the bathroom,

I shuffle along, dragging my feet,

I perform my ablution, and make it downstairs,

Sit in my armchair, and fall asleep?

I woke up with dribble in my beard,

the clock says it’s 7.33,

I wait a few moments until my head has cleared,

I think I need a cup of tea

But first, it’s time to take my meds,

they shouldn’t take long to kick in,

and I suppose I should get dressed,

So the daily wrestle with my clothes begins.

God bless the elastic waistband,

No fiddly, buttons, zips, or belts,

On with the shirt, all that’s left is my socks,

I’m determined to do them myself.

It takes a few attempts, but I get them on,

Roll on the summer, when socks become obsolete,

T-shirt, and shorts from May to October,

and slip on sandals on my feet.

Washed and dressed by 8.15,

the next challenge is something to eat,

cereal is easy, just add milk

followed by that nice cup of tea.

Use kitchen roll to wipe up spilt milk,

Put dirty dishes in the sink,

Make it back to my armchair,

Sit down and fall asleep.

My wonderful wife appears at my side,

With a mug of tea, right on queue,

She wipes the drool out of my beard,

and says “there’s something you have to do?”

I’ve got my T-shirt on inside out,

So she helped me turn it round,

I said “I’ve got an idea for the poem,”

So I quickly write this down

I’ve managed to dress and feed myself,

And I’ve done some writing too,

Quite a good start to the day, I think,

but now what shall I do?

Sitting in my armchair, I fall asleep again,

and wake up with drool in my beard,

I think I’ll just wait for my meds to kick in,

and wipe the drool out of my beard.

and sit here until my head has cleared.

and have a cup of tea….

and then maybe I’ll….zzzzz