The dahlias drink from a grey day

as if the sun never mattered.

Colors find their depths

and stretch past their names.

The orange hints of red

and the red nears blue.

And leaves lean together in green

upon green upon greening green.

Blossoms open as if Georgia O’Keeffe

herself has offered palm to brush.

But it’s the magic in grey

that softens glare of sun into sky.

Even the hush of dusk,

whispers violet, indigo.

Linda Opyr, the Poet Laureate of Nassau County 2011–2013, is the author of nine collections of poetry. Her poems have appeared in The Hudson Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Crannóg, The Stony Thursday Book, Antiphon, The Seventh Quarry, Atlanta Review, The Paterson Literary Review, and The New York Times. Numerous other journals, anthologies, and newspapers in Ireland, England, and the United States have published her poems, as well.