Exercise: Prospective Verse

It’d be good to wake 
as usual in the dark,

first, sit, then—sure—surf
(a little), shower, shave,

breakfast, then out 
before the workday, 

new cleats pulled 
on new boots, up

November’s already 
glacial ice on the Mountain 

to raise a palm offering 
black sunflower seeds 

and a chance peanut 
to the chickadees, 

nuthatch, and sole 
downy woodpecker,

then with the workaday
rest return, back down, 

to this no less real work.