DAYBREAK IN COLOGNE
The tiny bedroom transforms
Dawn
Cotton candy swirl
Bathes the white stucco walls across the street
Clouds of alabaster
Glowing pinks and blues
I rejoice
From our warm nest
Behind the sheer white curtains
Another beautiful day begins
Perfection
Vivid precision
Ceremony
Cars begin their daily task
Threading the narrow crowded streets of cobblestone
European style
Anxious hands
Banging horns like a chess match
Birds go about their business
Hungry
They roost on eaves of terracotta
Eyeing elms and spruce vantage points
Ame’dee’ stirs
Delighted to join the procession
My steaming coffee mug
Brings life to my aging bones
The air is brisk
Cold and refreshing
Thick
Hanging low like lake effect vapor
Russian lullaby
Words I cannot understand
But feel their tender meaning
Holiday
Sensory assault
In appealing variety
I drink it all in
And smile
© Bill Grimes Jr. 2005
