Morning monster

Legs feel heavy

Stomach is churning

Eyes won't open

Heart is pounding

Mouth goes dry

Teeth are chattering

Not a speck of reason to hope

No single place feels home

Nowhere to seek refuge

No hints of any siege

Nobody to call

Nothing to break the fall

A monster, not under my bed

An inchworm, slithering in my head

Something's come to the rescue

A knight in rusted armour

Squiggles and squirms, pink and hue

Lift a little and lessen the fever

Tolstoy, Woolf, Wallace & Lahiri

Now the worm, frightened and eerie

What if the worm inches in again?

I'll pick a Dickens, Dawkins, Dickinson or Darwin