Ditty
You, rare as Georgia
snow. Falling
hard. Quick.
Candle shadow.
The cold
spell that catches
us by surprise.
The too-early blooms,
tricked, gardenias blown about,
circling wind. Green figs.
Nothing stays. I want
to watch you walk
the hall to the cold tile
bathroom—all
night, a lifetime.
Credit
From Blue Laws: Selected & Uncollected Poems 1995–2015. Copyright © 2016 Kevin Young. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf.
Author
Kevin Young

Kevin Young's poetry collections include Brown (Alfred A. Knopf, 2018) and Book of Hours (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014), winner of the 2015 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. He was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2020.
Date Published: 2016-04-01
Source URL: https://poets.org/poem/ditty-0