when I wake to see the sunrise
I hear birds sing their dawn chorus

still clinging to old tradition
house finches sparrows and robins
together make the morning din
as light pierces the horizon

each bird labors to raise the sun
sashaying in bright new feathers
alone but also together
stretched from beaks to toes they’ve begun

if birds didn’t sing would light dim
morning never begin or day
cease to exist fading away
dawn become just notes on the wind