He awoke a new man
and immediately began to wonder
what happened to the old one.
He felt invigorated, renewed
but wished he could maintain
some of the clarity he had found
during last night’s intestinal agony

If there was a way
he could feel best in body
while holding onto
all the lessons he’d learned
from the pain in the dark,
he would have the best of both worlds.

But while rubbing the crud from his eyes
he began to shake
away the cobwebs of revelation
and found himself forgetting
all the truths of midnight
and returned to the sunnier disposition
of today.

He could not have both
the benefits of Morpheus and of Apollo,
nor did he have the power to choose
whose rewards he would be able to hold.