This Morning in a Morning Voice
By Todd Boss
to beat the froggiest
of morning voices,
my son gets out of bed
and takes a lumpish song
along—a little lyric
learned in kindergarten,
something about a
boat. He’s found it in
the bog of his throat
before his feet have hit
the ground, follows
its wonky melody down
the hall and into the loo
as if it were the most
natural thing for a little
boy to do, and lets it
loose awhile in there
to a tinkling sound while
I lie still in bed, alive
like I’ve never been, in
love again with life,
afraid they’ll find me
drowned here, drowned
in more than my fair
share of joy.
Copyright Credit: Poem copyright © 2008 by Todd Boss, whose most recent book of poems is Yellowrocket, W. W. Norton & Co., 2008. Poem reprinted from Poetry, December 2008, by permission of Todd Boss and the publisher.
Source: Poetry (December 2008)