Wake Up Call

Riding to work this morning,
I hadn’t joined the world yet.
The cracked concrete sidewalk
had been my narrow route to the car,
where I rested my eyes
on the gray and scaly skin of the dash
as we drove into the city.

On the radio, they were saying something
I can’t remember now,
something that was not enough
to stir me from the gray.

But on the edge
as we crossed over the river
sat a sight that turned my head,
that called my eyes
past the window glass,
away upstream,
to a dark hill
against and among the milky sky.
It startled me, that sight.
It woke me,
and in that moment,
I was atop that hill,
cold and shivering in the clouds,
standing still and tall,
a mountain.

As we moved into the city,
I turned back to the dash,
and was lulled to sleep
by the radio and the passing cars.