Heliotropic
In the evening light the dove’s undersides
look yellow, and the bush that grows along
the porch has flowers red as a tanager’s back.
At dinner hummingbirds come to press needle-
beaks into trumpet-blossoms, the music
of their work drowning our conversation.
Why would anyone forsake this gospel of beauty?
Consider the bees covering the heads of sunflowers,
the sunflowers turning to follow the light.
When the world is pink, and the sun has begun
to sink to the other side of the earth, we walk
into fields tall with goldenrod to pick the daisies
my grandmother called moon-pennies, until the dark
makes it hard to see, and we must search for the light
glowing in the windows of the house to guide us home.
Todd Davis is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Coffin Honey and Native Species, both published by Michigan State University Press. Read more.
“Heliotropic” was first published in In the Kingdom of the Ditch (Michigan State University Press, 2013).