Sunrise Over Kamloops

A Magpie Tale

from my recent journey through British Columbia and Alberta, Canada

Wheat Field with Rising Sun, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

The sun sneaks up in Seattle,

light filtering through layers

of cloud, needle, and leaf.

Some days only birds can tell

that dawn has come at all.

Along the Thompson River,

smooth hills hardly hinder

the whole sky's growing glow.

Still I resist rising

until the sun turns its spotlight

upon my thin tent door

and morning insists

that it not be ignored.