Gratitude

I give thanks to the morning

by drinking its coffee, 

black and tasteless,

as the dreams from the night before.

As the day dresses itself— 

fragile flaxen beams of light

giving thanks to soft consuming fog

by way of erasure— 

my tie gives thanks to itself, 

the skinny end appreciating

the thicker one until

they are the Windsor knot,

and there I am, again, 

searching for the light, 

brown loafers to match,

each one prepared to thank

the soft dirt or hard concrete,

equally, in metronomic steps.

I thank students 

by criticizing their grammar

and questioning their sources. 

Sometimes, i thank them

with a bad joke

or a simple affirmation. 

They thank me by leaving, 

by grad school applications

or kissing a stranger’s dirty feet, 

by New York and Dubuque, 

London and Mumbai,

by building a future

I’m confident 

will be kind to me.

About the Author

Daniel Pieczkolon is the faculty advisor for Quiddity.  He is incredibly proud of and grateful for the work this position allows him to do and the people it allows him to do it with.