Lights out but it’s glowing—
the dogwood’s white-petaled cloud that fills
the window above the window seat
just feet from the foot of my bed.
And I’m thinking I’ve seen this,
the same wide-eyed whiteness, winter nights
when the naked branches were gloved in snow
that had stored the day’s light somehow.
White Petals, 3 a.m.
Mary Jo Salter
Mary Jo Salter is the author of eight books of poems, most recently The Surveyors (2017). She is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.