How to Start a Day

Wake up, Sweet Child

Do you believe your dreams have meaning?
Whose presence lingers in your mind’s groggy eye
As you adjust to sunlight?

How many grandfather’s made it through the night?
How many mothers and sisters
were picked up by Death’s silent ships
and never awoke?

Drink your coffee, please

Have I told you the story
of the woman who found cancer in her breasts
two weeks after retirement?
What joy came to her tired chest
when she could empty the dishwasher
on her own once again.

Or the tale of the man with tinnitus 
that went mad
because he could no longer hear
the quiet he knew came
with autumn fog

How we hold the barrel to our own soul
We need not kill ourselves to waste life
simply take it for granted

Soon, we chase the rearview mirror
in circles down the years
dizzy with regret

Do your loved ones know who they are?
Remind them:
You are made of stars

Must your screen be the only thing
That lights up your face
When your slumber breaks?