The buzzer ruins my dream,
which I dreamt on my couch,
in which I was in a Pesach hotel
eating food off the table cloth
and being challenged on that halacha

At the door is a Fed-Ex guy
asking me to sign for a package
that he recognizes my name on
even though the street is two off
still half asleep I sign, he leaves

I expect that it's my guest at the door
but my friend's teenage son is gone
off to daven and then take the final
that he slept over in order not to miss
because today is an off day snow day

Turns out that in the box is an ironic gift
from a charity I gave to to help a friend
who's an organizational fundraiser who
hit me up to give six hundred dollars
part of which went toward this delivery

Now I'm navigating a day off from work
thinking about today's cancelled test
and the sheets my friend's son slept on
and the seasonal cold war I'm caught in
and the poem about it all I wish to write

While Dozing on the Train to Wasaic

~

Altered states

frighten me:

sleep, dreams, love,

The After Life

;

There's also

a sweetness,

kindness of

a kindest kind

;

When I wake up,

almost fall asleep;

that something else

I feel, I like