The difference is not that it is light  
when I wake but birdsong  
adds to the darkness the knowledge  
that I am no longer alone.  
Lili is usually not in bed beside me  
when my iPhone vibrates 
on the nightstand. One of our children is,  
or no one, and I have to go searching 
for my wife, passed out  
somewhere with the newborn clutched  
to her chest, Gigi, who wakes often  
to check on us to make sure  
we haven’t come unstuck and floated off  
among the studs and the sheetrock.