2008 September 3 poem: REMEDY

REMEDY

I went to the medicine nurse for my
Calming remedy. Does it work? he asked. Oh yes,
it puts me to sleep. Sometimes, usually. Of course there's always
those five minutes first when it doesn't. Each minute about an
hour long, and for every one of those hour-long minutes you're thinking
what am I going to do now? It's seven hours until breakfast and I
can't sleep? This is unacceptable, yet somehow I do
accept it and the next thing I know it's breakfast time but
until then, still, every minute is
an hour long. So how long does it take to write a poem?
someone always asks. And now I know the answer -
about five
hours, more or
less.