Author's Note: I have a cat, a very young one, who I shut in the closet when I sleep because otherwise he'd spend the whole night trying to bite me through the blanket. Thus "the cat's in the closet". He doesn't like the closet much, and starts scratching at the door and mewing after six to eight hours, although sometimes he'll go longer. Thus "he'll be a right pest by nine in the morning". It's hard to sleep when there's a cat scratching and mewing and generally carrying on.

Also, I wrote this towards the end of the summer session, so a good month and a half to two months ago. In case you're wondering why I'm writing a paper before most people's classes start.

It's three in the morning
Half-drunk and bone-weary
I sit typing away

It's a paper for school
Both depressing and cheery
Left to last minute
I feel a right fool
My head may be spinning but it won't go away

I'll finish tomorrow
Right now I need sleep
The cat's in the closet and been there for hours
He'll be a right pest by nine in the morning
If I'm going to sleep I should start on it now

Yet now I'm away from the keyboard and screen
I feel an odd lightness
As if of a dream
It's the liquor I've drunk
And the sleep I'm not getting
But it drives me to verse
And to deep muddled thinking
The Greeks and philosophers have nothing on me

It goes on without stopping
My half-drunken ramble
I'm beginning to worry that I'll never find rest
Though lying in bed the lamp is still on
My hand scribbles of its own accord
My mind pulls words out of air and dark corners
Sets them to verse as my hand sets to paper
Ruminations of a fool who should really go to sleep

What time is it now?
Approaching four
I'll be leaving for class in less than eight hours
It's time I put a stop to this
The left mind taking precedence over the vague flightiness of the right
Stop it I say
There'll be no conclusion
Just me closing the notebook
And setting down the pencil
Turning off the lamp
And saying Good night