Dawning – a poem by Larry Needham

Dawning 

4:40 a.m:  It’s no walk in the park,
this pilgrim’s slow progress up a dim causeway
over black water.  One false step in the dark —
and goodbye mother, father!  Smart phones cast rays
of light, anticipate the dawn of day,
their intermittent beams now become a stream
of flash frames on a darkened screen, a replay
of Fantasia’s Ave Maria dream.
Some seek higher ground to catch the first gleam
of daylight drench the lotus-spires of Angkor Wat
in pink and orange hues; some stay put, seem
content to set cameras for the perfect shot
of the wat — and what, the Light? — the Light always there,
that the world’s spinning (time to time) makes disappear.

Larry Needham lives in Oberlin, Ohio.  A retired community college teacher, he has published on Romanticism and poetry.  Larry has a keen interest in travel, but, these days, when not busy in the yard, works on writing short verse and fables.