Poem by Matthew Zapruder

I Wake Up Before the Machine    


I wake up before the machine

made of all the choices 

we are together not making

lights up this part of Oakland

it’s dark so I can imagine 

another grid humming in the east

already people are deciding

I lie in the western 

pre-decision darkness and almost

hear that silent voice 

saying go down there 

the coffee needs you 

to place it in the device

its next form will help you remember 

daylight is coming 

but dreams do not go away 

they just move off and change 

your mind is a tree 

on a little hill

surrounded by grasses 

that look up and say 

father wind 

loves moving through you

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Matthew Zapruder is the author of four books of poetry and Why Poetry, a book of prose about poetry, from Ecco/Harper Collins in August 2017. He teaches in the MFA at Saint Mary’s College of California, and is an editor at large at Wave Books. He lives in Oakland, CA.

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