Daybreak

2007 5th-6th Grade Poetry Winner

Daybreak catwalks over the city and crowd-dives into the alleyways, where strays sulk and chew on old Chinese food. Daybreak slaps the people of this city, blowing a raucous trumpet in their ear, just like that,so that then they'll rise and swim through New York, riding SUVs like they were purring tiger-dolphins.

As Daybreak makes its rounds, the people let the sun filter through their windows, just un poquito, just a little bit, and they relax into the womb of their thin blankets.

Daybreak out-boxed Muhammad Ali a long time ago and out-wrestled Mysterio, beating up the city, waking it, rousing it, scrubbing it down like an old car and bashing a couple of windows.

The gossiping old ladies will step outside their apartments for a drag on a cigarette, and stores will relent to daybreak, rolling up their gates and allowing it in.

Music will begin to tentatively play, a grizzled senior relaxing into a couple shots of gin eventually becoming brash and cocky, making drunken punches at the tranquil gaze of the heavyweight daybreak...

No one can deny daybreak as it kisses at your face. Daybreak will break hearts and beat up our city; the alarm clock that no one wants to strangle. Daybreak smiles at you like a Madonna to Child and is the overseer of your life. Daybreak is yours and mine, the waking gold of New York, the dawn, the birth.