Day After Daylight Savings

Blue numbers on my bedside clock
tell I forgot to change the hour.
This sets routines on haywire.

Like a domestic goat staked
to its circle of earth,
I don’t do well untethered.

I have no hunger for early dinner,
become confused by the sound
of children who seem out

too late for a school night.
They’ve found an extra helping
of daylight to romp on new grass

and can’t contain themselves,
strip off jackets, scatter
like a rag of ponies.

Whatever time says,
their joy insists
on springing forward.

Margaret Hasse, “Day after Daylight Savings” from Between Us. Copyright © 2016 by Margaret Hasse. Reprinted by permission of Margaret Hasse.