Moonflower

Through the window a patchwork of green leaves 
and gashes of blue, and a few telephone lines
suspended between out-of-view poles. 

Traffic passes but below the curtain’s horizon. 
Sometimes a truck roars or a car horn blares 
at the slow car ahead. But I’m looking elsewhere, 

searching for codes of the subterranean to disclose 
why even light carries a peculiar patina, a dusting 
that would gather into a message, except for this 

passing traffic troubling the air, for these agitating winds.
It forces me to wait, to quiet myself until another quiet 
echoes through the space around me and settles. 

So, I close my eyes and look into the darkness
that I carry everywhere as a part of what I am, 
because some things open to us only when
we turn away, like a flower that blooms at night.

MICHAEL T. YOUNG

Michael T. Young’s fourth full-length collection, Mountain Climbing a River, will be published by Broadstone Media in late 2025. His third book, The Infinite Doctrine of Water, was longlisted for the Julie Suk Award. He received a fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and honorable mention for the 2022 New Jersey Poets Prize. His poetry has been featured on The Writer’s Almanac.