Punching Pillows - June 3, 2024

before lights out

it’s quiet as I enter the bedroom

slowly pull the bedspread off the pillows 

fold it back in one-foot widths

to the end of the bed 

then sit and think

I perform this ritual performed

with a shrug of inevitability

stuck on this nightly routine

the surrender of another day

another reluctant X on the calendar

I head back to the living room

to watch the rest of the movie

or series or whatever is on

and realize I forgot

to prop up my reading pillows

good 

I’m tired of reminders of mortality

I’ll go to bed when I want  read

till I fall asleep  and dream

some crazy dream that

I’ll forget the second I wake up

and do it all over again

ending the day slightly

different than the night before

leaving the room

after

a good punch to the pillows