99poems/sprinklers

At 7:00a.m.
the sprinklers
clank on.
Ka thunk.
I wait
to see if it
has awakened
you, which is
its secondary
purpose.
We live at
opposite ends
of the day.
I like to arise
at dawn,
you stay
up ’til one,
sometimes
two or three.
It’s not what
I had pictured,
but then
so little is.

They say some
separateness
is good
for a marriage.
I think some
marriage
would be good
for it too.

6/16/99