Morning Personified
The writing guru says become a morning person, write before the business of the day gets in the way, before sunlight chases away last night’s dreams. But I have more ambition than that. I won’t become a morning person; I’ll become morning personified. I’ll look like a sunrise seen through a hospital window. I’ll smell like coffee and pipesmoke on the porch, like bacon and toast inside the screen door. I’ll sound like schoolbuses and garbage trucks picking up, like the robo voice saying hurry through crosswalks. You’ll hear a rat-tat-tat outside and think the construction crew broke out their jackhammers way too early. Your hangover will rise up and you’ll raise the window in a way that conveys that you’re angry though you haven’t yet cleared your throat. You’ll see a woodpecker rat-tat-tatting on a utility pole, and you’ll think this day, at least part of it, will go well.
16 thoughts on "Morning Personified"
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Love the almost manic comedy of this. A touch of Walter Mitty.
Thanks!
I like that you circled around to explain the rat-tat-tat. I enjoyed reading this a lot!
Thank you!
Ambition indeed! You are the sun that attacks my eye and makes me see the world in a whole new way.
THANKS!
love the sights and sounds and smells here!
Thanks!
It’s a fine poem. I read it there times, wrestling with the idea of a man as the morning. But then, William Carlos Williams personified an entire city, so you’re in great company.
Ha, true.
The layering and building of the description is so engaging of the senses–I was really drawn in to this poem. Loved morning “like bacon and toast inside the screen door.”
Thanks Shaun.
your personification
of morning is really cool
especially like “your hangover”
will rise up & raise the window
in a way that makes you seem
angry before you’ve cleared your throat
wow
Thanks Jim.
“I’ll smell like coffee and pipesmoke on the porch, like bacon and toast inside the screen door.”
Ignoring the brilliance of this poem and focusing on the fact that you subsumed bacon to become one with it makes me think I don’t love it as much as I thought and it gives me something to look forward to.
Thank you for another reason.
Thanks for reading, Ryan.