“Some Words for the Week”

I wake in the September dark

and get the tea started

and long for company

but I am alone

with the fruit flies

in the kitchen

and the spider

in the bathroom ceiling corner

I pull on my work clothes

lace on my steel toed boots

start up the truck

then stand for a second

in the broken rock

of my driveway

silent in the soft song

of the mountain morning birds

and I’m still alone

but here under changing aspens

I’m less alone

and the sun shimmer

through the coin gold leaves

is stove warm

in that I feel it outside and in

Alexander Shalom Joseph is a writer from Gilpin County. He has two published books and one more forthcoming in the Fall of 2022. For more information and to subscribe to Alexander’s Newsletter go to alexandershalomjoseph.com