E

My first favorite letter
must be E
for exuberance. For effort. For the first big animal
the elephant on a flash card, its arm of a nose
like a trumpet made of laughter, and E
gets to be big and loud and different and noisy.

You're past the slow beginnings, but it's still early, 7:15
on a sunny morning, when steam rises off grass
like a gassy promise, the alphabet has so much future
and here come the big words, exultation,
electric, ecstatic. Here is the rest
of the day ahead, the year, the life before us,
it's turning 12
and knowing your A-B-C's is commonplace
but now you get to the meat, the heart, the future of life
and little words haven't crawled up
to weigh you down, words haven't emptied you out
leaving you exhausted, waiting for the end.

E isn't like that. Not in the morning. It carries
the future. It's in everything, it's everywhere
it follows love and makes it complete,
it's even in absence

which is why I can spell sons
without it
and still know my favorites are in there.