Sonnet #376

When morning comes to crush your back

And ache your knees and stink your mouth

And the caffeine headache pulls you south

And the cool October and the damp and black

Of a slower sunrise than before and rain

Enough to flood the gutters, and it comes

This morning happens and happens and runs

Into the weeks ahead, a cycle turning more to pain

Where every morning bones are harder,

Every morning pain is worse than what it was

And this is the price we must pay to live longer

In this skin and meat we borrow, feel the fuzz

Of life, the wonderful joy, the warbling songbirds