This Morning by Charles Simic

<p>Production and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman</p><p> </p><p>This Morning</p><p>by Charles Simic </p><p>Enter without knocking, hard-working ant.</p><p>I'm just sitting here mulling over</p><p>What to do this dark, overcast day?</p><p>It was a night of the radio turned down low,</p><p>Fitful sleep, vague, troubling dreams.</p><p>I woke up lovesick and confused.</p><p>I thought I heard Estella in the garden singing</p><p>And some bird answering her,</p><p>But it was the rain. Dark tree tops swaying</p><p>And whispering. "Come to me my desire,"</p><p>I said. And she came to me by and by,</p><p>Her breath smelling of mint, her tongue</p><p>Wetting my cheek, and then she vanished.</p><p>Slowly day came, a gray streak of daylight</p><p>To bathe my hands and face in.</p><p>Hours passed, and then you crawled</p><p>Under the door, and stopped before me.</p><p>You visit the same tailors the mourners do,</p><p>Mr. Ant. I like the silence between us,</p><p>The quiet--that holy state even the rain</p><p>Knows about. Listen to her begin to fall,</p><p>As if with eyes closed,</p><p>Muting each drop in her wild-beating heart.</p>