Among Flowering Milkweed
What drew us first to the stand of roadside milkweed
was its fragrance pollinating the early dusk,
so sweet we wanted to breathe it in, make it part
of ourselves, and almost thought, as we approached,
that we could hear as well as smell it—a faint,
low whir—before we made out in the dimming light
what we took at first for a swarm of hummingbirds
probing the rosy globes, darting from one
to another, then holding still midair, their wings
ablur. What they were, we realized, were sphinx moths,
drinking the nectar in through tiny filaments.
We took it all in too, for those few drawn-out moments,
almost hovering ourselves among the milkweed,
holding still at the edge of the gravel road.
Jeffrey Harrison is the author of six books of poetry, including, most recently, Between Lakes (Four Way Books, 2020) and Into Daylight (Tupelo Press, 2014), winner of the Dorset Prize. Read more.
Jeffrey Harrison, “Among Flowering Milkweed” from Between Lakes. Copyright © 2020 by Jeffrey Harrison. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Four Way Books, fourwaybooks.com.