Sunrise 1/30/24 *

Montreal

* alternate photos and poems for paid subscribers everyone
[unpaywalled as of January 2025]

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1.
perfect tree winter foreground
other trees withstanding cold
bare of leaves streetlamps old snow
pushed into streetside mountains
a gas station there and cars
then the winter-resisting 
gold-mauve-rose sunrise background

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2.
pull back from the street and see
a bus stop there cold humans
their backs turned to the glory
of the first sunrise we've seen
in many a dark cold day
they shiver there with no time
for beauty only to be

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3.
what is this frozen river
doing here and the sunrise
casting the shadows of trees
across the refrozen snow
those bare branches' dormant buds
deep within nevertheless
catch sun and slightly quiver

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4.
early morning arrival
descending into sunrise
bearing passengers who wish
they were going somewhere warm
instead of landing on this
frozen island with their hope
of mere basic survival

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5.
from the yacht club saint joachim
and the convent seem to inch
towards the sun out on the
frozen saint lawrence seaway
where cartier and company
thought they'd followed the sunrise
around the globe to lachine

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6. 
the sun's golden stepping stones
across the ice invite us 
to walk to the golden room
of our waking winter dreams
where the buds of spring are formed
in secretly fired forges
burning autumn leaves and bones

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7.
this window on the sunrise
has opened for the morning
but will soon close and pitch us
back into winter like the
groundhog's shadow retreating
into total darkness to
wait for some pleasant surprise