Daily Alarm

The knock outside my window is loud and most insistent—
High up in the palm tree, repeated and persistent.
It’s my daily woodpecker, knocking me awake,
way up on my mountain, far above the lake.

He comes before the sunshine kisses the same tree,
trying to be helpful by stirring lazy me.
This Braille invitation, his daily expression
told with bouncing beak tapping out a impression

in the palm tree’s trunk so high above the crew
far below the palm fronds who greet the day anew
by scraping algae from the pool or making up the bed
as another down below sorts words out in her head.

(Enlarge photos by clicking on them.)

Prompt words today are sunshine, bounce, helpful, crew and expression.