Morning Ritual

First thing every morning

I pick up the first book

and dive in. In the bathroom,

it’s probably poetry – Peter Meinke,

Maya Angelou, Billy Collins, Pat Parker.

Music will substitute, if driving

(Roseanne Cash, “Miss the

Mississippi and You,” most recently)

but even then, it’s good to have Eudora

Welty’s voice, reading her own memoir.

If I ever go blind, I’ll have to have somebody

around, reading to me on request or else a button

to push, and have instant nutrition of the mind.