There is a time before dawn
when it feels like it will take
a long, long time
for that thin hint of light
to reach across the huge curve
under the horizon,
and all of yesterday’s heat
has dissipated
and a deep cold has settled in,
and your vigil might be intermittent,
sometimes driven under
by fleeting clouds of sleep

It feels like it will take
more waiting than you can endure,
But then the light
leaps across the whole sky
and glows behind you, too
and the stars hold their peace
and morning comes.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 11, 2014