No Dreams, No Memories

When sleep-deprived, your brain takes naps,
You live your life with constant gaps
Of memories – where was that thing?
Who sings that song I always sing?
I was supposed to be where when?
I flit through thoughts like a spring wren.

I’m sorry, hon, I just forgot –
I slept right through the movie’s plot –
I haven’t seen my darling since
Last weekend, now our lives are tense –
For absence makes a marriage stressed
And many fail the third shift test.

She works, I watch the kids, I sleep,
The kids can’t make a peep
As she takes her turn with the kids –
I see them all with darkened lids
And then I’m off at night to work.
I live my life without a perk.

At least a brain that must forget
As sleep takes out the neural net
In pieces as you seem awake
Will soon erase your past and take
Away your memories – of life
Alive, awake – and soon, your wife.