Flowers Sing Themselves to Sleep (after Wayne Hogan)

The staircase to slumber leaves behind windows

Not yet closed, as night flowers continue

To pose, their open petals refusing 

Norms of relaxation firming shut at night. 

Instead, steep stairsteps to twilight prepare 

For a different kind of light. And when 

You dream, do you see flowers open

Beside one another, translated to 

The idea of flowers in some nether 

Frame where indelible dreams rise 

Beyond known florets whose monikers

Meticulous with Latin syllables 

Are spun into happy simple English 

Names of flowers that bloom at night, moonflower, 

Angel's trumpet, yellow evening primrose, 

Imposing beauty on the willing mind?