After Waking in Darkness

HANK JONES

March 16, 2020

Because of a bird’s

Excited morning warbles

I look up from my phone

Where I’ve been reading

Intense articles about

Disconnection and disruption,

Catastrophes and coronavirus

To see the light gradually

Bringing the world

Out of darkness

And I say, Hey,

Beautiful day.

HANK JONES lives in Oklahoma, teaches in Texas, and has listened to a lot of audiobooks. He recently had poems in the anthology Speak Your Mind: Poems of Protest and Resistance as part of the 2019 Woody Guthrie Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma.