Contentment

Tendrils contort, tense
Veins trail down arms
Wielding the mighty mattock
Wounding earth...

Eyes roll back, head
Aches, every muscle searching for answers
Down a page, through a monitor
Strangely more strenuous

Greater men go home
Throw the mattock to the shadows
Scooping children in tired arms
Enough to feed, enough to love.

The mind is still working
In darkness, after book, after typing, after drawing
Tired mind, couldn't lift a child
Enough to eat.

The contented man sleeps well
snores aloud with every passing second
Family sleeps well, he did good
He did real good.

Other sleeps with questions
short breaths, wisps, the perimeter of deep release
treading it cautiously, can't find a solution
A week of nothing, how can it be?

Was anything accomplished?
He doesn't see his hole in the ground
Or his child asleep, well-fed, his wife asleep.
Could it not be about him for a few seconds?

Just for a moment, an echo's life...
He's found the solution outside himself.