Great Day in the Morning

https://kanelsnurr.deviantart.com/art/Tea-and-Cigarettes-169811984

I rise and stagger from thrift store throne

sun drunk and nicotine / caffeine high

Lord’s morning worship service

bedroom balcony my sanctuary

late April heat alerts

stubble of armpits to

let pheromones from pores

I smell like somebody’s mama

inside my bedroom now

sun blind and feeling through a

landscape of laundry mounds

dryer sheets waving surrender

there is no king of these hills

a rogue monarch sits slumped in

her side chair picky headed 

crown satin bonnet soft scowl

I fix my face like this deliberately to

survey my territory freely without

somebody asking me “what’s wrong?’

‘cause I know it ain’t none of nobody’s

damned business

the nightstand knows my loyal Hand

holding report cards and tarot decks

dappled with ash from cigarettes I 

smoked defiantly in bed

haphazard altar upon which I burn

nag champa and clove flavored tobacco

knitted monogram coaster

gifted from The Princess

leather pouch of crystals I charge

under full moons and never make time

to catalog their magical properties

they do what I pray them to I think

report card and permission slips await a

reasonable response mood tone lesson

one with more tea and honey

no red wine and smoke

come Monday I will have dusted and

razed the garment heaps and set

controlled blaze to 

white sage and palo santo 

before welcoming the colonizer to whom

I pay a handsome rate to reign 

across my drawbridge so that he may

inspect the condition of my castle

I will be regal then

I will wait until he has gone satisfied

until that departure

I have had enough of sunshine

Image: Tea and Cigarettes
https://kanelsnurr.deviantart.com/art/Tea-and-Cigarettes-169811984