I was going to call this ‘Lines written between three in the morning and dawn, but I only managed three lines in that time span.
November verse 11:
I mostly have no trouble sleeping –
drop a hat, I'll hit the hay,
so much so, I struggle keeping
open eyes at movies, plays
and lectures. When I go to ballet
I nod from first to final plié.
So if I wake at half past three
with leg cramps or anxiety,
I walk about, might drink some water,
best of all, engage my mind:
recite some verse, and then I find
it's just five lines before I've caught a
zed or two; perhaps compose
lines, like this ... and here I snooze.
Me fail? I fly! 
I first encountered the passive audience overwhelming (almost) sleepiness during baroque (in rhythm with one’s heart – nothing more soporific) concerts in the specially designed “Midori-Bashi” (Green Bridge) church of music patron friends in Ube-shi in western Japan. Designed to capture the grand European cathedral side chapel resonance and audience/congregation size (100 or so) – on already warm and humid summery afternoons I’d be finger-nails into palms and otherwise restlessly shifting position in my seat doing my best not to nod off! In any event – I put my own head on the pillow at night and I doubt I could count to 20 before I have drifted into sleep. On the recent trip overseas – greeting fellow travellers or overhearing their solicitous enquiries of each other – it was clear a majority of people do not have that ability – sleeplessness and sleep inducing rituals and medication taking tales predominated. I think I’ll take the occasional performance nodding-off over nightly difficulties with getting to sleep. Still out-of-kilter with some jet lag flying back from Tbilisi/Doha – I find it is 3.30 am before I feel inclined to check the time and decide to find my bed – though up a mere six or seven hours later – and a missed call from the eastern US…Reading Michelle de Kretser on Shirley HAZZARD! What a mirror on the writing and the themes – in some respects – of these two great OZ writers!
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I didn’t realise passive audience sleepiness was a thing, Jim. I’ve certainly got it. I just expect to sleep for 5 minutes during the first act of a movie and I’m terrified when I get a front row seat at the theatre
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greeting fellow-travellers – at breakfast …their tales of woe re sleep – I meant…
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