Sometimes that’s a positive – when it spurs me to try out for new things and make new connections and deflate the excess worry that builds in my chest when I feel overwhelmed. But the flipside is overdrive. I must write more, read more, get things done in advance so that I can fill my newly formed hours with even more crafts and more clubs and more outings. I’m not one for a slow-paced life, but when I can’t fall asleep due to my anxious whirring thoughts, then something needs to shift. Check out the poem after the jump.
An Antidote for Nervous Energy
There will be more than enough time to explore –
The paths we traced on,
Old subway maps and in new photographs,
Digitized, optimized, and uploaded for others’ benefit.
The books will stay on the shelves;
There will be more than enough time to crack their pages,
Sift through the subtleties and,
Wade in knee-deep through the tangles of detail and character,
That can only be found beyond page five.
Leave the essays for now. Leave the critique aside.
Let’s erase the figures from our pages,
Spread our sheets over unmade beds,
And turn heads with only our response of ‘no’ to any invitation –
We’d rather sleep –
Than ask for more than enough time to check off all the boxes,
On the to-do list.