Morning’s song awakens me. Outside my bedroom windows, birds chirp a happy song into the silence of dawn’s awakening, as if in welcoming back the light, they are singing praises to earth’s indefatigable journey around the sun.

It is early. Night still lingers and I lay still. Cocooned in my bed, the gentle breathing of my beloved quietly measuring the moments of awakening with their steady thrum.

Quietly, I slip from between the covers, pad barefoot into the kitchen, turn on the light above the stove, the halo of its soft glow casting back the shadows from where I begin my morning ritual of making coffee.

The world feels quiet outside the safe enclosure of our home. I have not yet read the news, not yet caught up on the happenings, out there, somewhere beyond the security of these four walls.

I cling to the silence. Wrap myself in the stillness and savour these last few moments of serene calm.

The world can wait.

For now, morning light beckons me to sink into contemplation. To slowly release night’s lingering shadows into dawn’s early light.

I breathe.

Deep.

Still, I wait.

Still, I let the world’s woes recede as I sit embraced within dawn’s soft silent light.

Dawn's Unfurling
©2023 Louise Gallagher

Still
morning waits
cerulean sky
stretched out
reaching for the light
above leafy branches
waiting
still
for the sun’s
welcome kiss
to caress green fronds
still
waiting
to unfurl
beyond where I sit

waiting
still
in dawn’s early light
awakening
birdsong
chases away
night’s lingering shadows
pressing back against
dawn's approach.

still
waiting
I sit
in silent communion
wrapped within 
dawn’s early light
unfurling
across a cerulean sky.