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a.m.

—Sheila E. Murphy

a.m.

I take my sturdy walk each day, faster and faster 

Wearing the Merrell taut soft blue I plush my way through 

Residue of perspiring birds and threads of rabbit advance 

My purposeful motion making room for affection

As I watch and speak to scores of people leashing along

Their tiny alter egos I compliment sans intrusion

For we are all one thing moving through

The color and the clarity young and peaceful seasoned 

Wondering as though permanence were a matter 

Of knowing who your mother truly was

The trees gift lush branch places for the birds to hide

Children ride in prams as parents perhaps

Make the connection between what they daily give

And what they receive, the hunger each shares

Spares no one and I wonder about what secrets

Never leave the lips of the faithful the fearful

The habitual the routine life forms that 

Remind us all this moment is the sweetest sacrament 

We take for granted girded as we go 

Anticipating some adventure some new way 

Of embracing the ephemeral breath and heartbeat 

That propel us along the very green morning 

That lets us shine until taut muscles say go home 

We do our movements still like dance if still 

If yielding to a greater universe

We know by heart and yet continue learning 

As if by heart

About

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SHEILA E. MURPHY’s most recent books are October Sequence: Sections 1-51 (mOnocle-Lash Anti-Press, 2023) and Sostenuto (Luna Bisonte Prods (2023)). Murphy is the recipient of the Gertrude Stein Award for her book Letters to Unfinished J. (Green Integer Press, 2003). Murphy's book titled Reporting Live from You Know Where (2018) won the Hay(na)Ku Poetry Book Prize Competition from Meritage Press (U.S.A.) and xPress(ed) (Finland). 

​

Her Wikipedia page can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Murphy

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