POETRY MONTH DAY # 18 — ODE TO AN ALMOST NORMAL MORNING

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And what does NaPoWriMo have for us today? It would have us "write an ode to life’s small pleasures." Here are a couple.


Ode to an Almost Normal Morning

Thud of cat on bed,
coffee delivered by husband,
I settle down to read a story 
written by eighteen of us 
over three-and-a-half weeks, 
an effort to mitigate the challenge 
of life in isolation.

In the old apricot tree outside the window 
chickadees and finches dart from branch 
to clothesline to bird feeder to branch, 
retaining one seed, spilling a bunch on the ground
for deer that come in the night.

Cat dissolves into sleep, 
coffee attempts to wake my sleepy mind,
I examine the story for seams between authors,
find them lacking as hive mind takes over the plot
in the way of a good collaboration.

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