4:30 AM and my head hurts

Wanna stay in bed but school comes first

Wake up, shake up,

Ain’t got no time to do make-up

 

Bread and butter

Spam and rice

Love that OJ

But please, no ice

 

Then it’s toothbrush

Scrub, rinse, spit

Glance at the clock and

Fuck, gotta blitz

 

Blaze out the door

It’s a two-hour trip

As a college commuter,

I try not to flip

 

And shit, sometimes I’m early

And the professors they say,

“So who came all the way from the East Bay today?”

Well gee, I’m actually from the North but that’s OK

 

Not that you’d notice me in a class of 500 anyway

But I digress and I swear on my breast

That I’ll do my best to be better than the rest

I swear this is no jest

 

So I work at the behest of those around me

Going through the motions

Pausing to put on lotion

On overworked, cramped, dry hands

 

From then on, it’s in one ear and out the other

They lecture all they want but I’m too tired to listen

Until, eight hours later, they finally say,

“Have a nice day”

 

For a few precious moments,

All the stress floats away

I make it back to my room

Comfy, content, safe

 

But I’m always shocked out of this peaceful state

All the shit piles up

And I’m not even trying to procrastinate

Oh well, it’s already too late

 

I can only hope that the days don’t go too slow

Or too fast because

You know all of this trouble?

This too shall pass.