Meditation on the Veranda

Bliss—right now:
beneath a blue jade
vine’s beaded bangs,

my sonar function
asleep, the I unstressed,
a syllable glided over.

(Except wherever
in the line it’s placed,
the I is stressed.)

Behind me, a lipstick palm.
In front of me, the early
stages of sunrise,

the world before
highlighter’s applied.

Copyright © 2020 by Carol Moldaw. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on March 6, 2020 by the Academy of American Poets.