Open your eyes. Scan the present dark, seek shapes in the shadow, and welcome yourself there. Lift the weight of dreams, the dog that ran out of view into tall grass, your dead father’s shouldered silhouette against the coming dawn, then rise to full extension in the morning gloom, breathe. Sigh deeply, stretch toward the window, the ceiling, the whirring fan in the corner. Let the shiver of night roll through the ache of old bones, let them rattle at will. The sun rises red, foretells rain, the possibility of your own petulance, but breathe deep now, and rise with the crimson moment. Take your heart with you. Here today. Light will follow.
Early Morning Poems 