Between Waking and Sleep

Before the first bird sings,
I hear morning stir
like the distant notes
of a saxophone,
and my dreams become
Chinese kites
floating in sunlight,
bottle rockets
tattooing night,
the slow explosion
of lichens on rocks,
and the unexpected colors
of ghosts.

Jeffrey Johannes, Port Edwards, won the 2012 Hal Grutzmacher poetry award, and co-edited the 2012 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar and the Winter 2019 Bramble with his wife Joan. He has been widely published in journals and anthologies including Modern Haiku, Rosebud and Nimrod.