"Before the Day:" by Andrea Scarpino
[audio mp3="http://barnstormjournal.org/content/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Before-the-Day-Scarpino.mp3"][/audio]Before the Day :sunrise over the lake,seagull clatter, crow,sound of glasses stacked,restacked, metal slidinto place. Cacophonyof blossoming :forsythia, lilac, cherry’spink-tipped sway.How long has the bodyrefused sleep? Damp handof the sheet startling. Hours months years?Time moves slowly.Before the daybody feels its wayinto shape : almost risenbody almost in pain.Andrea Scarpino is the author of the poetry collection Once, Then (Red Hen Press, 2014) and the chapbook, The Grove Behind (Finishing Line Press). She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Ohio State University and has published in numerous journals including The Cincinnati Review, Los Angeles Review, and Prairie Schooner.