My Birthday

I was the first to wake, then out I went 

with yesterday's trash, including 

the empty boxes the handyman meant to heft 

but left outside the front door after replacing

two faucets and assembling a bookshelf. 

Also included in today's detritus, 

a full helping of shredded paper poured into 

a large white drawstring plastic bag

to match the other drawstring bags. 

I unloaded the dishwasher and filled 

the water bottles then made Irish breakfast tea

and started thanking people 

who sang on text and sent notes and gifts.

I wrote to Kaz in Japan 

to thank him for a lovely photograph 

of a silver tree before a warm wooden home

behind which very tall slender gray 

silver trees loom. 

I bet on an exacta and a trifecta, 

both boxed, and won forty-two dollars. 

Maidens and geldings on mile-long dirt tracks 

swell with surprise for novices like me. 

I don't bet often but I bet well. 

We're headed to the art museum soon

There is no telling what will happen next,

It's one big poem to listen and breathe, 

skipping yoga today, I have already 

done yoga five times this week.

There are imaginary stars all day

readying my night when we will dine

at an Asian place and marvel at the tea,

the taste, the slowing down 

after a day of art.