A Poem by M.J. Iuppa

This Morning's Litany

Here, the leafless mulberry imagines itself fully dressed.
Here, a band of robins flit in and out of its burnished crown.
Here, branches sway with every bright note sung at daybreak.
Here, the fishhook moon trawls slowly over the orchard.
Here, my breath flutters on the window, counting back-
wards, claiming this hour's rhythm as my own.

M.J. Iuppa lives on Red Rooster Farm near the shores of Lake Ontario.  Most recent poems, lyric essays and fictions have appeared in the following journals:  Poppy Road Review, Black Poppy Reive, Digging to the Roots, 2015 Caledar, Ealain, Poetry Pacific Review, Grey Sparrow Press:  Snow Jewel Anthology, 100 Word Story, Avocet, Eunoia Review, Festival Writer, Silver Birch Press:  Where I Live Anthology, Turtle Island Quarterly, Wild Quarterly, Boyne Berries Magazine (Ireland), The Lake, (U.K.), Punchnel's; forthcoming in Camroc Review, Tar River Poetry, Corvus Revie, Clementine Poetry, Postcard Poetry & Prose, among others.  She is the Director of the Visual and Performing Arts Minor Program at St. John Fisher College.  You can follow her musings on art, writing and sustainability on mjiuppa.blogspot.com.