Mikaela Castledine #4 Nineteen and a Half

I'm counting the hours on my fingers
since we woke in the cool eastcoast
morning at 6.30
remembering their propensity
to fiddle with their clocks

and the time now
after we flew out of the late afternoon
into the prolonged orange curve of the sunset
as if to catch and overtake the sun
and descended almost impossibly
against the dark rising heat of home
where we tick along the same
even in the summer

to determine whether or not I should feel tired
as if just being tired is not enough
or not feeling tired
we should stay up for a while
unsealing the house
from its week long incubation
cooling it down so we can sleep
at what would be 2 in the morning
if we were still there
not here