a cold morning song

a cold morning song

begins with breathing wood and crawling sun

that falls from evergreen peaks,

drawn down on gravity's hills that crest and valley,

each branch and 'cone struck and frozen

in shadows' contrast and scattered splendor.

Hardy converts from moonlight's convictions

wake and glow and perspire

forgetting dreams of brazen fur swept romance

in beds of leaves and down-feather moss

now rise, knee-spring pad-tread softly

embraced with prints of cool dewed earth.

a cold morning song

percolates walls and floorboards

built and laid in the naughts (never mind this century)

in time with coffee drip and pepper grind twists,

the tink-tink-tink of steel-ceramic swirling

and the smack as rubber gaskets completely kiss.

Arise with hunger of last night's whisper

sweet glitter and glistened waves call—

from distance sharing light, divine or witness

foreign groves that sway in citrus heat

and ache for pollen breezes like

strings of dust in serpentine space.

a cold morning song

ends in echoes and asks to be played again.

Single Crystal Engine

Our fathers perfected the single crystal engine

in the few hours each day not spent shaving

as tribute to the steam eclipsed gods they mirrored

and whose cheeks like polished bronze shields

reflected the advances of copper-topped foes.

They seasoned their morning eggs with arsenic

and cooked all their meals in doorless microwaves,

illuminated by arcs of plasma that wavered and danced

on utensils and drawer knobs throughout the room

all under the plume of boiling countertop orange juice.

If they ever slept,

it must have been in the passing lane.

Fish who toggle brains to keep from drowning

between the accelerator and brake.

(The very world they were best suited for.)

In bars they performed impressions of their upbringing

long hidden drawls of mothers excavated with the tenderest of care

and reverence that would float ghosts to the surfaces 

of crystal clear liquids and long dry tumblers

immaculately stainless and print-free.