Rita Dove: "Dawn Revisited"

Imagine you wake up
with a second chance: The blue jay
hawks his pretty wares
and the oak still stands, spreading
glorious shade. If you don't look back,

the future never happens.
How good to rise in sunlight,
in the prodigal smell of biscuits—
eggs and sausage on the grill.
The whole sky is yours

to write on, blown open
to a blank page. Come on,
shake a leg! You'll never know
who's down there, frying those eggs,
if you don't get up and see.

"Dawn Revisited" by Rita Dove, from On the Bus with Rosa Parks: Poems. © W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

Image credit: "Eggs in Skillet," oil painting by Tom Brown (originally color).