Death By Midnight Espresso

I recall a quote from Girl: ‘having my child is like having a liquidiser, only I don’t have a lid for it:’ I am following a trail of cat litter, shampoo and odd shoes to where Baby is feeding Dog an envelope.

Baby gets all her work done, but mine gets neglected today.

When Baby is gone, I’m tired, I register fully how tired I am, but it’s not the liquidiser effect, it’s really the coffee I drink too late at night and my brain bounces in my skull and wakes me up well before the alarm.

I have three optimum writing times and late is one of them, the only one today I will be taking advantage of.

I love the cloistered dark; a throw back to the intrigue of impressionable youth, to the image of The Poet: the cold, hungry soul alone in a garret, nourished only by words, inking intensity by the flicker of a goose-fat candle.

Poor Poet, too romantic to sustain a life; the blood flecks of tuberculosis have ruined your cravat. I can poke fun at the appeal, you see, just not quite let it go.

But if I don’t stop drinking coffee at midnight, a classic spiral descent is waiting.

An interim glass of wine tonight; rose petal tea tomorrow. Not unromantic, not unsustainable. I can put a lid on myself.