Marie Lecrivain poetry 2010

reveille!

every morning in my neighborhood
is marked by a moment of stillness;

there's no traffic moving along la cienega blvd.,
the crows are asleep in the palm trees,

and my next-door neighbor's tailless,
single, visaged descendant of cerberus

has finally found some measure of peace
hunkered down on concrete steps.

but, then comes the clarion call of dawn
to restart the whole riotous process of

this microcosm again... and, with
my eyes watering and my heart

pounding, it is - in this moment -
that i come to understand

how piercing the
silence of light

can be...