A Man Who Sits Up Nights

An author is a man who sits up nights
and writes
and writes
and writes
and writes
and writes.

(It always takes him ages
to fill up fifty pages.)

Although his children think their father’s dear,
they rather wish he were an engineer

and took the 8:09 to town each day
and went to bed at night the proper way

instead of spending ages
filling fifty pages.

They borrow all his paper clips and inks
and ask him what he’s thinking when he thinks

and if he tells them what — which he should not —
they always know a much, much better plot.

An author is a man who sits up nights
and writes
and writes
and writes
and writes
and writes.