Early Morning, Front Porch

by Bobby Byrd

Early Morning, Front Porch
— El Paso, Texas

I boiled water to clean up
the pigeon shit on the front porch.
That’s why I’m outside
broom in hand
on such a beautiful morning —
from here I can see
the whole wide horizon,
the sun rising, desert mountains
to the east to the west,
flowering from emptiness,
the Rio Grande running through
two cities, two countries, two
languages, so much sorrow,
so much love and hatred,
good news, bad news, the old lady
who said it’s all the same,
even in the midst of her suffering,
the death of children,
a husband wandered away,
and still the pigeons coo,
the cats sleep, the earth
swings round on its cosmic string.