Before the water boils

Before the water boils
The room will change
It will be flooded
with a Light
That makes the lamps and their tiny bulbs superfluous
They could only light a little space, give a little relief from the darkness
While the dawn brightens everything
With magentas and violets that wash the sleeping burdens off sky scraping windows

The colors slide upward across the skyline
And for a moment I see the buildings differently
For a moment there is as much life in a traffic light as there is in a tree

Before the water boils
I will change my mind          twice
About whether I am glad my life has turned out this way
Or whether I should have done everything differently
I made do with very little
When I could have done better with less

“My cup runneth over…”

A flame indeed
within the belief of a frame of mind of body that I think it is
If I change my mind         my tribe     my daylight to twilight mold of thought
and sculpt accordingly
 if I forgive the flowers for being so orange so open so obvious and adore instead
their intent
The gift in me blooms and beholds—out side my window, the yellow construction tape yielding the letters CAUTION flutters in the warm winter breeze and catches the glow of the streetlight in tiny sputters
 it looks like lighting flashing along the side of the highway.
Some things too are beautiful, when you don’t know they will be,
even when you fight against it.            
Some things prove me wrong
Tell me I know nothing
Of beauty in the first place.

Birds sweep the color from the skyline with their wings
And the city is a dull gray
I notice a new neon sign
And think the world is coming to an end

And then realize that it is not new at all
It was here before me
Before this standard apartment
Before I called it home

It was there the whole time
I just never noticed

Maybe we will be alright
Me, the apartment, the birds and the dawn and the world.
Maybe tomorrow I will look the other way and not even notice

The water is boiling over