Monday, June 18, 2018 5:33 AM

The first bird of the morning, on those mornings when I'm at home, starts up between five and five-thirty AM. It doesn't care when the sun is supposed to rise. It's always the same, or at least one of the same species. It's always annoying. It reminds me that I either should be getting up or should be going to bed, except when it reminds me that, serving both day and night shifts, my bodily rhythms are now completely divorced from the rhythms of the sun or of everyday life. Usually I enjoy birdsong. I think Kate Bush has sung along with one of these. But this one doesn't inspire me to sing. It inspires me to wish that I could sleep.