"First Light."
A prone couple still sleeps.
Light ascends like a pale gas out
of the sea, dawn light reaching across the hill
to the dark garden.
The grass emerges soaking with grey dew.
Inside in silence, an empty kitchen
takes form tidied and swept blank with marriage where
shrill lover and beloved have kept
another vigil far into the night and raved and wept.
Upstairs a whimper or sigh comes from an open bedroom door
and lengthens to an ugly wail.
A child enduring a dream that grows at the first touch of day
unendurable.