Pat Valdata
Commuter
Tardy sun gilds the silver
queen while Tina sings
soft and rough. I didn’t
catch enough z’s, so Rise Up
Coffee comes to my rescue.
My spirits should rise up
with each sip, but I am not
morning’s minion. I slip
on oversize sunglasses
against the morning’s glare.
Sixteen ounces later, I still
want to doze. But the light
catches up to the coming
workday like a snooze alarm,
irritating me to wake the heck
up already. Annual cicadas
strum zee-zee-zee while
Waze’s British lady voice
directs me to the E-Zed
pass lane, missing the pun.
No fun.
Pat Valdata’s poetry manuscript about women aviation pioneers, Where No Man Can Touch, won the Donald Justice Poetry prize in 2015. A revised edition was published in 2023 by Wind Canyon Books. Her work has appeared in literary magazines including Ecotone, Little Patuxent Review, North American Review, Passager, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. www.patvaldata.com