Not yet fully awake
I recognize the nightshirt
but not the bleary-eyed

disheveled savage
occupying it
who when I investigate him

responds to my quite
reasonable curiosity
with a series of scowls and contortions

the nerve of him
coming up so close!
who does he think he is?

What a relief
only a few minutes later
to see him become

the polite person known
to me and all my friends 
hair properly brushed

his half-smile concealing
all but the easiest
thoughts to get along with

and unmindful of that grizzled
barbarian
inspired by who knows what

still half-remembered primal dreams