Morning with Sam

Most mornings with Sam are, to put it mildly, chaotic, to be perfectly blunt, a nightmare!  This morning was no exception.  Given his severe ADHD, combined with the medications he takes, sleep is elusive and not a high priority for him.  He might fall asleep early, say 9 pm, is back up an hour later and it might be 11 or so before he's back asleep.  His mornings start early, jolting everyone out of bed anywhere between 3 and 6 am.  When the jolt is before 5:30 or 6 am, he can sometimes be contained long enough for some semblance of extended slumber to lightly blanket us again.  I use the word "slumber" loosely- "cat nap" is more accurate.  Let's just say I've forgotten the last time I slept past 6 am. 

Sam is loud, blundering around like an elephant, making strange noises, laughing, banging, babbling, slamming doors, cabinets and generally being a nuisance.  Shocked out of sleep, the dogs begin barking, his mom yells and I stumble out of bed to get the new pup outside to do his thing.  And, so, the day breaks, literally.  There can be accidental or deliberate breakage, door slamming, and, if he wakes his brother (most of the time), sibling brawling.  All this before the inevitable:  Sam is sentenced to a couple of hours of time out.  Even time out is not pretty.  On a good day, calm is restored to the burgeoning day (at least for a few hours) by 8 am.

Anyway, on a creative note, I was prompted to write a poem about our morning mayhem.


Mornings,
chaos spills out
of his room
like a Pandora’s box-
furies scattering,
snatching the sleep from our eyes.


Noises
rival rush hour
in a city with no traffic lights-
honks and howls,
babbling, barking,
assaulting the pre-dawn silence.


Teeth on edge we add
a complimentary jolt of caffeine to the chaos.


On my kitchen perch,
oasis in the brewing storm,
I sit and sip
as the furies
swirl and nip
the edges of my calm.


7/11/10