I Know Why My Mother Wakes Early

5 a.m.

Long before dawn
can dry the dampness
from our dreams.

Spiders drop from single strands
  (the coffee is hotter then),

even the dog makes
no demands.

Ann Batchelor Hursey spends her days teaching, parenting, writing and watching her border collie herd phantom sheep. She is a member of the Mercer Street Poets.