Humphry’s brain wouldn’t be quiet.

It kept having ideas bubble up like a riot.

But, “I want to sleep!” Humphry said with a yawn,

“There are so many things to do after dawn.”

 

“It’s past your bedtime. It’s past your bedtime.

Don’t go to bed without a carrot on your head,”

Herschel rapped as he too swam off to bed.

And, Humphry wondered if that was a secret to stop the creeping

ideas in his head.

 

So, he found a carrot and put it on his head,

But, it kept falling down and out of his bed.

Then he tried to turn the carrot into a pillow,

It was too hard, like sleeping with on tiny armadillo.

 

Maybe Herschel hadn’t said carrot?

Could he have possibly said a parrot?

Humphry tried to put a parrot on his head,

But that only helped the bubbling ideas to spread.

 

Humphry swam over to Herschel, nearly crying,

There must be a secret, he thought, that wasn’t so mystifying.

Parrots and carrots didn’t seem to help,

Quiet the ideas that clung to his mind like kelp.

 

“Herschel, I’m tired,” said Humphry with a yawn.

“Can you help me with what you were singing in that song?”

 

Herschel looked a Humphry with a grin,

And started his rap all over again.

“It’s past your bedtime. It’s past your bedtime.

Don’t go to bed without a carrot on your head.”

​

“But, Herschel, I’m tired. I just want to sleep.

And my brain just keeps going all beep beep beep beep.”

 

Herschel laughed because he knew the feeling,

But he didn’t want to sleep – “say no to dreaming!”

​

Porthos, the turtle, saw them from afar,

And swam over to see why all the gnar gnar.

“Why aren’t you sleeping,” he asked the two.

“Don’t you have some sort of dreaming to do?”

 

“I’m trying to sleep; I just can’t quiet my mind,”

Humphry said to the turtle. “I’m trying to find,

The secret to sleep but Herschel doesn’t know it,

He's just pretending and he won't show it..”

 

Herschel made a face of disgust,

“Sleeping is for lame-os, like we discussed.”

 

“My research says that’s not entirely true,

When we dream, we imagine. We see things that are new.”

Porthos looked up from his big giant book,

And pointed to the pages and the advice that he took.

 

Herschel sighed and laid on his back,

He thought perhaps he could get down with that.

 

Porthos looked for clues in his big book of secrets,

“Imagine a color, a place, or a time,

Imagine something that belongs in a rhyme,

Start to picture something brand new,

And, soon your brain will start to entertain you.”

 

“Something better than even ideas?”

 

“Yes,” said Porthos. “And, it says here

That sometimes the best ideas come from sleeping,

So, if I were you, I’d get to bed,

before new ideas run away from your head.”

 

So, Herschel thought of cool new types of food,

And Humphry imagined a sea of infinitude,

And Porthos swam home with his book on his back,

And, wondered what he’d dream up when he hit the sack.