JEFF SEFFINGA

Karen’s Awakening

As if it had always been here for you,
the sun is stepping forth
to stroke your world with fingers of easy light,
beams that seem too fragile
to hold up fragments of cloud.
Sparrows chatter on the eavestroughs.
The robin on the lawn tugs
no worm but your attention out of your mind
while the heart now beats,
forcing blood to flow to corners
that have need of it.
The familiar rhythm of the rise
and fall of your chest as your lungs breathe
is a miracle
to be examined with awe.

Today your body needs no supervision,
no careful involvement of the mind
to maintain independent
functions against external and internal faults.
This morning shall not overwhelm you
with the thicknesses of light-consuming cloud.
The concentrated forces of your storm
have dissipated;
they threaten you no longer.
And as your mornings fill now with light and air
the cold and weight of driving rain,
heart-stopping crack of lightning,
shall become
faint dreams of moon shadows.



Jeff Seffinga