Ever After Begins Somewhere

After

I lurch to my feet

Bones clicking and

Joints sticking

Cat howling expectantly in the hallway

Clock ticking away ceaselessly in my mind

Which has already raced right past lunchtime and back

Twice

After the world has returned to focus sufficiently

That I can identify a pair of pants almost warm enough

To allow me to brave the unheated basement

After each of those forty or so seconds have passed and

Before I leave the room

I always look back
To the tangle of pillows and sheets
For an elbow or
A lock of hair

Even now

After almost fifteen years

That is still how my day has to start

After
All