PC: Author
Hi, friends! Today I’m sharing with you a poem I wrote in response to a prompt from a book I’ve been working with recently. This is an aubade, a poem that welcomes in the morning and what has gone with the morning, as well as welcoming in what may come with what has gone. The picture I chose for this is sunrise over the Blue Ridge Parkway in late October, because there’s not a lot in this world that’s more beautiful.
You can read my other prompt-based work here:
Good morning to what has gone
As the sun rises I know that you are rising with it
Out of this body lying here in front of me
Childhood ripped out from under my feet so swiftly
The birds sing outside and the pinks and blues paint the sky
And hope rises in my chest like an oxygen bubble might support someone underwater with no other way to breathe
Life comes in and in and in
Going on and on and on
Good morning to the girl-woman I was
I hold you
Sit with you
Thank you for the ways you protected me
Navigated me through the murky waters between full dependence and full independence
If there is such a thing as independence in a world where we cannot do this life alone
Welcoming interdependence with all life
The newest iteration of this self that I am just now getting to know
This self who builds equity in a home and plants a garden in front of it to remember that life has seasons, too, and supports a lavish lifestyle for the designer dog I share with my fiance and thanks God we did not name it something stupid like Bentley1 and takes trips but not too many because I’m 25 and in a lot of debt
This self who takes days off and spends more time writing and resting and moving her body and forming genuine connections and setting healthy boundaries
I think I like this self
I think I love this self
This self who gets married to the love of her life in May
and watches the leaves fall at 11 on a Friday morning
What joy
Good morning to the single days of years gone by
To the boyfriends and lovers and friends who can no longer be with us for reasons known and mysterious
To the ones who shaped my heart
So that it could have space for what is
Now
Dear friends
Jewish and Ukranian and Palestinian and every other country whose people either hold the memory of suffering or are currently suffering due to incomprehensible acts of violence
Dear friends without words of which I am one
May we hold each other’s hearts in the face of this pain
Not turning away but letting tears stream down our faces as we recognize the humanity in every single person on this planet
May we allow our hearts to break open again and again and again
As life comes in and in and in
And goes on and on and on
Let us never be too busy to love
Bentley is not a stupid name for a child, dog, or anything else. It’s just not my style. I’m sure the Bentleys you know are wonderful and it’s a fitting name for them.