Aubade

by Barbara Crooker

O, this morning, not a cloud in the sky, and coffee, black,
the way I like it.  I have been watching a phoebe, dark hood
and wagtail bobbing, as he flits back and forth from the beauty
bush to the eave of the shed, just yards from this red Adirondack
chair where I’m sitting, breathing the day through my skin. 
It rained last night, and the chair’s damp slats are cool 
on my back; there’s a scree of frogs in the swamp, a creek 
of sound in the background, a river of desire: Here I am. Find me.  
Felicitous. That’s the only word to describe this. The sun pours 
warm honey from its great glass jar, no matter how little we deserve it.
Some of us drag a heavy load through the day, a sack of should of’s,
or push a bushel of sorrow up a hill. But there’s the phoebe coming
back with his bit of straw or broken twig. He has a job to do,
and he sticks with it. And then he opens his beak and sings.

~ Barbara Crooker