Inexplicably awake,your small voice seems to fill the night,
narrating the undreamt darkness.
Buoyant boy, your brain is bright —
brimming words and bursting wide,
a poet at the age of three.
I can’t forget that time you said
There’s too much morningtime in me,
explaining why you once again
were waking in a world that slept.
This sudden need for passing on
the words that rattle in your depth —
it’s new to you. You don’t know yet
how silence slowly floods a man.
Insomniac child, wide-eyed wordsmith,
speak now while you can.
Too Much Morningtime by Jesse Keith Butler | Lavender Poetry Reed Diffuser
Jesse Keith Butler is an award-winning Canadian poet. He's the winner of the inaugural 2024 ESU Formal Verse Contest and a 2026 Writer in Residence at Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon. His poems can be found internationally in journals such as Maisonneuve Magazine, Arc Poetry Magazine, New Verse Review, Blue Unicorn, THINK, Pulp Literature, and The Brazen Head. His book The Living Law (Darkly Bright Press, 2024) is available wherever books are sold. Learn more at www. jessekeithbutler.ca.
