I am up early. The box-elder leaves have
fallen.
The eastern sky is the color of March.
The sky has spread out over the world like
water.
The bootlegger and his wife are still asleep.
I saw the light first from the barn well.
The cold water fell into the night-chilled
buckets,
Deepening to the somber blue of the southern
sky.
Over the new trees, there was a strange light in the east.
The light was dawn. Like a man who has come
home
After seeing many dark rivers, and will soon go
again,
The dawn stood there with a quiet gaze;
Our eyes met through the top leaves of the young ash.
Dawn has come. The clouds floating in the
east have turned white.
The fence posts have stopped being a part of
the darkness.
The depth has disappeared from the puddles on
the ground.
I look up angrily at the light.
2016-01