Identification

close to morning

God’s identity papers ¹

1. “darkness opening into morning”²

2. raindrops submitting to frost and caterpillars to being bound; testifying a twisted transcendence

3. grape tomatoes from the side garden

4. and the morning a friend asks if I want orange juice with breakfast, I say yes, so she walks outside to her backyard - picks oranges off her orange tree.

5. Old Bay seasoning on french fries

6. a clementine that’s easy to peel - the spray from its rind mixing with pine leaves and cinnamon sticks

7. how Corby sniffs at the same old hollowed out stumps at the beginning of each season

8. because there is something hallowed in the hollow

   still standing

   still asking

   still waiting

   still

1. Taken from Mary Oliver’s “I wake close to morning”

2. "I wake close to morning”