it's 6AM and it doesn't matter

because the smell of fresh baked goods

beckons me to the kitchen table

Sunlight peaks over the fence

catching the dew drops in the grass

and giving me a reason to go out onto the porch

a cool breeze tells me it will be a drizzly day

and for now I enjoy the hug that the hammock offers

a cat rubs against my leg and then lets me know it wants to be let inside

I open the door for the cat and listen as

Astrid hums a song by "The Red Hot Chili Peppers"

while she feeds her cats and calls them sweet German names

that I can't remember properly because the cats look exactly the same to me

Bright blocks of color on the walls surround me as I sit down at the table

spreading preserves on a piece of pretzel bread delivered to the doorstep

this morning at 4AM by the local bakery while we all slept soundly

I breathe in the smell of coffee, comfort, and home.

This house and the people who dwell in it -

I carry not just in my memory,

I carry them in my heart.