En route to Central Pennsylvania
he greets the two ghost sycamores
towering above a stand of pines
on the road through the Newark Valley.
Bark lit from within,
luminous no matter the season,
he never fails to notice
and pay them homage
whether naked in winter glare
or clothed in leaves of jade.
Even at 55 miles an hour,
whatever the weather or time of day,
he knows just when to look to his left
pointing as we go,
as if they might be waiting for us
and he wouldn’t want to disappoint.
I catch sight of them
in a blur over my shoulder,
limbs entwined like a bride and groom
poised to dance at their wedding.
-Gloria Heffernan
Gloria Heffernan is the author of the upcoming poetry collection, What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List, (New York Quarterly Books, 2019). She has also written two chapbooks: Hail to the Symptom (forthcoming from Moonstone Press) and Some of Our Parts, (Finishing Line Press, 2018). Her work has appeared in over fifty journals including Anchor, Chautauqua, Stone Canoe, Columbia Review, Louisville Review, and The Healing Muse. She is an adjunct instructor at Le Moyne College and teaches poetry at The Downtown Writers Center in Syracuse, NY.