A Poem for a Thursday #240

I have featured Ted Kooser a number of times previously. I enjoy his down-to-earth style and ability to make the everyday beautiful. There is a meditative quality to his descriptions. I have been waiting for months to use this poem and now that it is October it is time. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Dawn comes later and later now,
and I, who only a month ago
could sit with coffee every morning
watching the light walk down the hill 
to the edge of the pond and place
a doe there, shyly drinking,

then see the light step out upon
the water, sowing reflections
to either side—a garden
of trees that grew as if by magic——
now see no more than my face,
mirrored by darkness, pale and odd,

startled by time. While I slept,
night in its thick winter jacket
bridled the doe with a twist
of wet leaves and led her away,
then brought its black horse with harness
that creaked like a cricket, and turned

the water garden under. I woke,
and at the waiting window found
the curtains open to my open face;
beyond me, darkness. And I,
who only wished to keep looking out,
must now keep looking in.

A Letter in October
Ted Kooser