Maureen Mulhern: “6:00 a.m.”
6:00 a.m.
Clouds the color of seagulls
Swim through grey waters
As I feed the birds,
The indoor cats
And outdoor strays
Who scratch
At my pajamad legs.
I’ve already swept
Mouse legs and lower torso
Into dust pan
(the head is another story).
As I walk away
A cavalcade of wild turkeys
Scrambles
Across the broken rock wall,
The teenage son
Stares at his reflection
In the kitchen window
And touches his hair,
His thoughts far from home.
Maureen Mulhern received the Ruth Lake Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America as well as a writing fellowship from Yaddo. Her poems have appeared in Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, Drunken Boat, Hunger Mountain, Indiana Review, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and other literary journals. Her first book of poetry, Parallax, was published by Wesleyan University Press.