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"Aubade"

By Alan Michael ParkerPosted Tuesday, May 18, 2004, at 9:08 AM ET

Listen to Alan Michael Parker reading this poem


On my side I am a bicycle
propped in bed,

gangly in the morning.
Down the hall, a neighbor's door whines and slams—

in the air clapped, a siren churns,
troubles the December gloom.

The souls of things
winter in little rooms:

inside the spoon, a flute's undone;
inside the lamp, the filament

waits to flower, sing.
A bee dozes in the current,

an idea in a piece of string—
all thing, I lean away

from the hour, back to where I've been,
one wheel spun.



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Alan Michael Parker's five collections of poems include the forthcoming Elephants & Butterflies. He teaches at Davidson College and in the Queens University low-residency M.F.A. program.
Click here to visit Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project site.


To submit poetry to Slate, send up to five poems and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Robert Pinsky, Slate Magazine, Boston University, 236 Bay State Road, Boston, MA, 02215.
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