MILKWEED

Milkweed 

Only the ditch
holds the milkweed upright,
stalks locked in rigid white columns

leaves testing the air—
lifting, lowering,

tight nodes of clenched flowers
waiting for the yellow-black migration.

The secretions thicken: 
pods swell,
harden under the heat

coming apart,
dark seeds pushing outward
trailing thin, pale filaments-

until the field is full of drifting bodies—
light, persistent, moving—
close to the ground

until they are gone 
and 
the ditch is bare.