Ode to Morning

By Todd Osborne

I like, more than anything, on mornings where we both

are free of work, to get up before you and pad,

or try to, softly into the clanging kitchen—its cabinet doors

and its screaming kittens—and prepare inexpertly

a pot of coffee that we can sip on all morning. It is

my way of saying, small-ly, insufficiently, I love you and

thank you for all of the miracles you perform daily,

above all, for choosing me each day as I choose you, always,

each morning.

---

Todd Osborne is a poet and educator originally from Nashville, TN. His debut poetry collection, Gatherer, will be published by Belle Point Press in Spring 2024. His poems have previously appeared at The Missouri Review, Tar River Poetry, Cutbank, and EcoTheo Poetry Review. He is a feedback editor for Tinderbox Poetry Journal and a reader for Memorious. He lives and writes in Hattiesburg, MS, with his wife and their three cats: Patrina, Gwen, and Pizza Roll.