I was a very willful child
And a stubborn one as well;
What I put my parents through
I really hate to tell.
I don’t know if it was of import
That I go to sleep at nine o’clock;
I only know I fought against it
With the stubbornness of a rock.
I always got a spanking
Before each night was through;
My dad would end up angry
Because he was stubborn too;
But somehow over time I learned
To sleep when I am tired;
And these days, when it’s nine o’clock,
My energy has expired.
Sometimes I try to stay awake
To watch a TV show—
I wake up when it’s over,
Then off to bed I go.
I think my Daddy would have smiled
In those days of “way back when”
If he’d foreseen me nodding now…
The way he did back then.
E. Williams
Bedtime for Grown-ups,
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