Once I wanted the whole dawn not to let me

sleep. One morning, then, I awoke and watched as

waking woke me, came slipping up through half-light

crying softly, a cat leaving her corner,

stretching, tall in the new gray air of morning,

raising paws much too high. She came slow-stepping

down the hallway to crouch, to call, to answer

through the door, making still and slow the dawning

once so bird-ridden—and the sun, the curtains—

From Eve