Obligations

Obligations

I keep thinking of things that I should do

After work is done and the day is through,

But my mind works better in the morning.

My mind seems to shut down with the sunset.

I used to stay up all night with the owls.

Now I greet the dawn along with the larks.

The stark winterscape, the absence of larks,

Thinking about debt and bills that are due,

From the oak outside the hoot of an owl

Which lasted for hours is finally through,

Like the darkness at the edge of sunset

When the world pauses, a kind of mourning.

The stars pale, a warning of morning,

In summer the dawn is welcomed by larks,

A new day forgets yesterday’s sunset,

I check my new phone for things I should do,

I’ll stop for some gas as I’m passing through –

Overhead, silently gliding, an owl.

Athena is often seen with an owl,

Because dream wisdom flees in the morning

Unless with the dawn we have a breakthrough;

A new insight, or song, like the light-greeting lark,

Dispeller of dark, welcome of dew,

Whose hours are few, long gone by sunset.

Watching Dad build a campfire, his son’s set

On growing up fast.  The sound of an owl

Sounds like music. There is nothing to do

On a bridge of dreams until the morning

When they wake up to the song of a lark

As the stark rays of the sun cut the fog through.

I had a thought – it was a through and through.

It disappeared like the light of sunset.

There was a mountain – it’s gone like a lark

That is replaced by the night by the owl

Who in turn is gone at dawn, at morning,

When starlight can still be seen in the dew.

Life has obligations, things we must do;

Starting with morning on through to sunset,

From the song of the lark to the call of the owl.