wake up//wake

by Fred Aiken

i woke up at 3am this morning,
not for any reason,
not because i wanted to,
but when i tried to go back to sleep,
the crows started barking,
and my cat started chirping,
and a neighbor’s dog started mooing,
so i thought, well, maybe i didn’t really
wake up at all,
but damn does it feel like it later in the day