Wake-Up Call by Mani G. Iyer

The birds wake when they sense
a sliver of light slide
open the sealed envelope.

What unfurls, they welcome
with a burst of birdsong.
They sing till the dwindling
dark no longer names
the growing daylight, first light.

My sleep annoyed, I wonder
why the birds never tire
of this rigmarole
dawn in, dawn out.

Do not go back to sleep,
Rumi reminds me,
the dawn wants to tell you something.

Much later, at a time I prefer,
an app awakens me
with a bird band playing
First Light.

Mani G. Iyer is a deaf-blind poet, born and raised in Bombay, living in the United States. He earned a master’s degree in computer science and pursued a career in software engineering. He recently earned an MFA in poetry from Lesley University. His poems have appeared in The Helikon Poetry Journal (translated to Hebrew) and Poems2Go.