This Day

By: Lucinda Trew

Wake 

by a clock that aches 

from the rote of rotation,

the weight of the 

sameness 

of days.

Pale light seeps, 

slow as motor oil, 

dissolving the divide 

between dream 

and dawn.

A sour sigh, a stretch, 

nighttime regret

washed away, 

almost,

by blond beams flickering

across floor, stirring 

dust 

and hope, 

rising.

Feet on the floor, 

dog out the door. 

Glaze of spilt eggs on the counter, 

sleeve catching 

the butter dish, 

the clatter of 

caffeine.

Disarray before order, 

fall before grace.

Affirmation before

the bathroom mirror:

All things good and true. 

Abundance and ease. 

Peace and profundity. 

Amen.

From your tooth-pasted 

lips

to God’s ear. 

Rinse. 

The order of things: 

A list.

To write, read, resolve.

To do and do over. 

Do better. Do right 

by yesterday, 

and all of the rust-rimmed days 

before. 

Days that began golden 

and swirly 

like this one. This day. 

Swelling with held breath, 

a tethered balloon, 

straining for sky.

The order of things: 

Creation and chaos.   

Email, pay bills, 

thaw something on a plate 

placed over the egg and butter stain. 

Look out the window 

at a garden jumble. 

Pull weeds, plant seeds. 

Breathe. 

A deadline to meet. 

Write, edit, send.

Amend. 

Fold fraying towels 

to clear your head, 

inhale

laundry smell. 

Breathe.

The order of things: 

Run. 

Run to 

or run from.

No pain, no gain. 

The tears are from 

wind, 

pollen, 

scratchy contacts. 

Not pain. 

Not this day. 

Not now. 

Wave.  

The order of things: 

Cook the thawed chicken. 

Add lemon, capers, 

anoint 

with Chardonnay. 

Unruly simmer and splatter. 

The jangle of homework, T.V. 

Clean towels to put away, 

or wrap around, 

or wipe up the remains 

of this day. 

This day, sidling away 

slyly, 

Winding down, 

Rhyming down. 

Spent. 

This day. 

---

Lucinda Trew lives and writes in Charlotte, N.C. She earned English and Journalism degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her work has been published in The Fredricksburg Literary and Arts Journal, Medium, The Mighty, Charlotte ViewPoint, BluntMoms, Boomer Cafe and Vital Speeches of the Day.