Morning (ellipse 96)
Natalie Koopman

Like a jester, the screeching rooster staggers.
Against the windows, the sun’s great, clear fist batters
And, stirring birds and leaves,
Pursues the dawn nestled in the green bed of reeds. 
A shutter cracks open and wakes the village.
Now, the garden moves as the hen pillages
The mounded soil, scratching wounds furtively. 
The ladybug runs and wants stubbornly 
To traverse the melon belly, smooth and round.
Summer overwhelms the sky and blond life abounds. 
The turkeys peck in dumbstruck defeat
At rays of golden sugar. A high heat
Weary of the clouds, folds its warm wing down 
On the houses, the ground. The entire hive prowls. 
On the blushing chest of a sweet calyx,
The butterfly lingers like lips,
While the sun crawls up the front steps, heavy
Hoof of light, crushing the ivy.