Napowrimo 4/29/26: morning path

Today's Napowrimo prompt is some time travel of sorts; a poem where past and future selves consider one another. 

early morning me-
before the hurly burly
of a day-
scribbles digital or physical.
seeks to produce anything.
before the light comes and
moves him into its machine
glow. before the day becomes
him.

some of me remembers 
sleeping. he remembers
the sun's alarm creeping onto his
face, announcing obligations
with less urgency. he knows
sleep is less and more than
death's relative. he is fine
with this family reunion.

once, a friend posited that
how we start the new year
is the precedent we set; the 
path we shovel for ourselves.

we, me and me, always knew
the shovel well. we knew what
we've made for ourselves and we
each walked the path of our making.

one of these new years, the shovel will
turn on us and our children will be the ones
piling the path we made
down on us. when we
remember, for the first time,
a sleep that requires
no alarm.