“Thinking Too Early”

 

c. 2024 Rod Ice

All rights reserved

(2-24)

 

 

I started thinking too early

Got my mind lost in a ceiling fan

A wild safari through the daze

Riding a breeze born in a coffee can

I started thinking too early

Spun myself into knobby knots of despair

All the while stuck in the cushions

Of a thrift store easy chair

 

I started wondering too early

About crazy circumstances beyond control

It made me uptight and out of sight

Like a police cruiser on patrol

I started wondering too early

Mind playing tricks like a show horse at play

Something rattled my consciousness

It ran my mobile backwards into the bat cave

 

I started jumping too early

Got pulled in with the thought of leaping a fence

It made me hop like a critter with long legs

But the animal control took offense

I started jumping too early

Over hill and dale on the run

The last competitor in a race

Riding high into the sun

 

I started dreaming too early

Though my brain was clearly still quite awake

It caused me to testify

To deeds that I could not lawfully embrace

I started dreaming too early

With the morning glow still overhead

I fell among thieves and had to recant

Everything that I had unwisely said

 

I started typing too early

At the keyboard like a student, so naïve

Crouched over the electronic display

Pecking away at those square keys

I started typing too early

With the deadline approaching, fast and quick

I should have admitted my failure

But the thought turned my stomach sick

 

I started loving too early

A desire that came out like a plea of hope

Once I saw her so close at hand

Once I heard the words she spoke

I started loving too early

Every curve and caress she carried along

The way she purred my name like a kiss

The way she turned hello into a song

 

I started looking too early

For alternate routes to pass the day

A path around the castle walls

A stone skipping through the maze

I started looking too early

For something that was not a chance to take

Got my ankle caught in a jump rope

Fell hard on my knees like an earthquake

 

I started thinking too early

About the verse teetering behind my eyes

A thought that tickled the gray matter

Like a witty, clever, quill-and-ink reply

I started thinking too early

That a page of sheet music was enough

To sit still on the piano bench

And call out the dirty, demon’s bluff

 

I started drinking too early

Got an olive stuck in my Martini craw

Doubled over like a wallet fold

By what this jester saw

I started drinking too early

And found that it blurred my sense of self

I couldn’t write my way out of that brown, paper bag

It trapped me right there on the bookshelf