Sunrise Symphony
My body dovetails from a dream
circling through birdsongs and alarms
into a morning flooded by happy singing.
There’s a different thrill in the air,
like all the gloominess didn’t survive the night
and I am waking into a new light
There’s only laughter in this hour
and nothing feels like it is approaching a tragedy.
The sky is wearing a blue medley
and this is how a day promises to never go sour.
My mother
is floating in her hymns and ‘hail Marys’
My father
is touching the morning with a glow in his eyes
My fears
are all shedding into a tint of hope
My assurances
join the sunflowers outside in their blooming.
In all this beauty
I am sinking into a ray of laughter
and learning to become;
something more melodious than the music
something brighter than the morning
something divine my body is learning.
But because this poem has known beauty,
because its body is bejeweled will lucid metaphors
I will hold it with the same hands the world holds the Mona Lisa.
I will behold it with Da Vinci eyes.
I will not poke it in search of rubies
I will allow its eye follow me across the room
Do you see,
that when the sunrise falls into an alto stave
and my mother joins the quiver bird
to throw her voice into the morning glory,
the music lightens my heart and
I am caused to float in this singing
into the heart
of a swirling sunrise symphony.
Ifiokobong Etuk is a Nigerian writer, page and spokenword poet with love for everything about the intersections between places, persons and memories. He is the winner of the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize 2023 and was shortlisted for the Bridgette Poirson Poetry Prize, 2023. His works are currently on The Shallow Tales Review, Fiery Scribe Review, Verum Literary Press, The Loch Raven Review, The Muse Journal, BANSI, The Peace Exhibit, with an EP of audio poems on Audiomack titled “Homecoming” all of which can be found here https://linktr.ee/k.o.q. He tweets @KINGofthe_QUILL.