January Sunrise   

The sun is not eager to rise in January

Lingering over its cup of coffee

Rumor of a glow

Bleeding into the edge of a star-sequined sky

Short of light as the streets are short of traffic

This morning

People following the sun's example

Walking toward the trolley stop

I sigh a column of steam

The sun rises slow from its kitchen table

Spreading gradual blue across the sky

Like dye across an egg

While across again the blue

A deep slow downward-sliding hum

Like two bass trombones

Twin-engine propeller airplane headed southwest

Across the asphalt Catholic schoolyard

Boots crunching on the frozen shell of the world

I look up past the frowning blackened brick

Venus shines like a suspended diamond

Beneath the shining eye

How the topography must fly

From grass to mud to architecture

And back to mud again

A momentary infestation

As the universe waits for the egg to hatch

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