Morning After Getting Good News: A Poem

So already, sometimes there's good news. Even in these harrowing times. A medical procedure that yields the hoped-for results. A lower estimate on your replacement windows. A car that can be repaired with one simple, inexpensive part while you wait. The clearing of your name. The job offer you got after the two you didn't get. A law that passes. A crucial election result. A vaccination that works. A jury's verdict that means justice. A bank error in your favor--not something to be sneezed at this week in the USA.

But serious good news doesn't always sink in right away. "Morning After Getting Good News" is about that.

Waking to belief in the good news,

The bedroom changed. The bed, hunkered weeks

Against the alcove’s shielding walls, dared to

Migrate to a central spot from which

The paintings, portals into farther rooms,

Could be fully seen, as could the window

With its still-drawn shade outlined by sun

That blazed in affirmation of the tidings.

The ceiling, pressing less, buckled upward,

So that the room became a vaulted space.

From the bed, the sleeper’s upturned eye,

Trust restored in light and sky, beheld

Hovering just beneath the new-formed arch

A loose-tied bunch of white balloons.