Aurora Borealis

An arc of searchlight,
and (as such) a not quite
accurate
way of going about it:

if you were looking
for some lost thing
in the ring
of dark circling

the earth,
if the path
of light you hunted with
(emerging from underneath

the horizon, and trained
not by you but a hand
unseen) ended
with a sideways bend,

if its torch forked
and flickered
as if overworked,
if it torqued

inside itself with a wow
and a flutter, a now
you see it now
you don't, how

long would it take
before you'd make
the leap?—Would you look
at those freak

streaks in the sky
forever before saying, "I
see the light:
this is what I sought tonight"?

Copyright © 2006 Mary Jo Salter All rights reserved
from New Letters
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission