By Sage, 2014

 

I see You in the early hours of the morning when I wake up before my alarm

Or when I roll over and hit the snooze button one too many times

Or when I wake up unable or unwilling to get back to sleep

When the house is cool and dark

When the light through the shades is still watery, weak

When darkness pulls back from the land like a lover

Reluctant to leave the warm embrace of her beloved

Soft and slow, taking its own sweet time

Dawn begins its careful ascent above the tops of the mountains

My mountains

Peaks long since rounded and softened with the weariness of age

Trees catching the golden light one leaf at a time

 

You are the scalding coffee and the sizzle of bacon

The bright sunshiney eggs and the tiny furry head

Belonging to the not so tiny dog (not anymore, at least)

Who rests her head in my lap hoping for a scrap or two

Or six or six dozen

Thoughtfully dropped from my breakfast plate

You are the morning paper and the rumble of school buses

The chorus of birdsong that speaks in a language of territory

And mating and family and migration and life

 

You are the diurnal insects beginning to stir with life-giving

UV rays finally spilling down into our valley

Lighting up the flowers like neon signs

You are the little brown bats returning to their roosts

Softly chirruping to each other as they settle in barns

Steeples and attics and rafters and belfries

You are the luna moth and the firefly

Curled up now in safety until the return of the moon

 

You are the glorious warmth of the heavens

The riot of life even in the middle of winter

The force that turns the flowers to the sun

You are the ripening of the dogwood berries

The long-awaited frost on the pumpkin

The morning glories and hummingbird bush

Curled happily along lampposts and wheelbarrows

In a haphazard spill of color and scent

 

You are my cup of coffee doing battle

With sleep still nipping at my heels

You are the whisper of a dream-fueled haze

Pushing me across the threshold of my home

And into the startlingly clear light of day.