When I say self-starter
I mean that I can (and often do) face the desperate emptiness
of working to finish Something Important
in the margins between daily tedium
and stressed slumber
at an hour I refuse to check
on yet another weeknight
churning caffeine, sugar, and bile
stinking of the day’s labor and self-pity
neglecting a dozen joys and a hundred chores
pulling fumes from my insides
to condense until they form
Something Salvageable
and further distill it until what’s left constitutes
Something Actually Usable, Maybe
without a soul who could rally my resolve
except me.