Sunbeams and Dust Motes

There's language in the pull as I awake
Arriving like traffic emerging from a dark tunnel
Upset by some dream I've already forgotten
A memory of each day overcasts my dry eyes
I squint to see
Like a foggy car windshield
Peering from the inside
Is it today?

I wonder what your heart tells you
In its morning language
Which of yesterday's sorrows do you yet bear
What pulls you awake
Calls your fingers to their work

I pull foam from my ears
I ask myself which bird it is
Whose voice I hear through the window
Sound dampened by glass
Should I shout back

I ask as my feet first touch the carpet
Looking forward to the smell of coffee
The clarity of purpose
A vacuumed carpet
I seem always to need more

And so I stop myself and look back to the window
Where the bird told me I was no longer asleep
And I catch the morning light
In it, I watch dust float up from the dirty carpet
Particles of despair
Making their way through
The warm glow of a sunbeam
Not saying anything
But rising

March 22, 2022