Old Age Has Its Own Alarm Clock Poem by David McLansky

Old age has its own alarm clock
Rousing me to wake before the dawn
Aware that sleep has come suddenly to a stop
Wide awake without a stretch or yawn;

We sleep in separate rooms out of respect
Our restless sleep would only disturb the other
We compensate for this common age defect,
And only in the daylight are we lovers.

Yet in the darkness when I pass your door
And see it shut against the softest sound
I worry for the woman I adore,
Do you still breathe and does your heart still pound?

Perhaps you died quietly in your sleep,
Your door now an entrance to your tomb,
My foolish care to walk in slippered feet
While you are lying dead within your room.

But when you shyly open up that door,
And resurrect my hopes, dispelling fears,
My soul awakes vibrantly to its core
To know I live another day, my dear.

For without you my life is unsustained
My fragile state blatantly revealed
Without you, I cannot bear the daily pain
And live the falsehood daily you conceal.