Awake at Dawn, Liz Drake
Awake at Dawn
                  after reading Li Ho

once we too were coils
let out
to be rearranged

amid lilacs and petrichor

our young bodies
bared thick the fitful drowse
of twined fingers

cerulean bands on a nightstand
glinting threshold of dawn

so when I leave you
your cool curtains

air a restless billow
half gone toward noon

I won’t wake you

our mirrors
two petal faces
in somnolent sheen

or ask you to drop
your posy of dreams

we each require
such different attentions

heat ascendant to swell
of finch and bunting

how strong our summering

we need no longer speak
of what we grow
toward that final harvest

so well arrayed our clouds
against open sky

Lisa Higgs