ordinary time

waking as i always am
merely awaking
each day a bit more awake than the previous
each day a bit more disturbed
by what is taken for reality
what is perceived
what is ignored

i awaken into time that is ordinary
ordinary for me
a morning of near unconscious prayer
dutiful prayer
prayer nonetheless
and
to the ear shattering piercing warbling
melody of a robin
who seemed to delight in her own echo
off the building
more fascinated each time
with the contours of her song
and laughing a time or two, too
just to assure herself that her song
is really hers
that sort of ordinariness

i blink myself awake into the awakened consciousness of
6 billion other souls who are walking or driving
or shuffling about somewhere somehow focussed
on the activity of survival or pleasure or both
ordinary shuffling about of humanity
each day
millions of people moving fast

i go with the slow ones
i learn to walk with the slow going nowhere
of ordinary life
there's a rhythm there
there's a sanctity there

trying to listen in an ordinary way
to the ordinary sounds
of the ordinary words

stepping to humming
to the nothing special song
of the ordinary time

trenchwork
mopping
sweeping the streets
taxi feeding
sweetening the day with music
ordinary music for ordinary
full timers

beauty most deeply seen
in the delicate balance of the
everyday

i do the ordinary dance
in the ordinary way
to the ordinary rhythm
of the ordinary day