I am getting up later in the day (2009)

This was the first poem I performed live, back when I was living with Josh Inman who dragged me along to the infamous Bad! Slam! No! Biscuit! at the Phoenix Pub in Canberra. It was very well received. Perhaps I should have quit while I was ahead...

I am getting up later in the day
When the sun is firmly lodged within the sky
And the remnants of the nighttime rainfall
Have long since vanished.

What reason can I conjure up or say
To justify my prolonged languishing
Is not the warmth of my soft mattress
Good reason enough?

I cannot blame the winter morning's cold
That casts the air as sharp as tempered steel
And hardens up the blades of grass
That crack underfoot.

Nor can I be so forward or so bold
To speak of fears of howling, bitter winds
That press against blue-lipped tired faces
Of pedestrians.

No mental bonds restrain me to my bed;
I am happy, depressive thoughts are gone.
The choice is mine to leave my slumbered pose
And go face the world.

No.

What keeps me here today is your fair head
Laying gently upon my naked chest
And as your eyes open up, I smile.

The day can wait.