Thursday, May 10, 2012

Sickle Moon

Photo:  "Crescent Moon Dusk Sky"  David Graham



Here's a new poem by my good friend, colleague, and collaborator Kate Sontag, who is a wizard with very demanding formal structures.  Queen of the Pantoum, she has recently been branching out into villanelles.


[Note:  the poem as originally posted was revised 5-18-12]




Sickle Moon


I promise he says not to die on you.
We’re driving the dusky highway home,
the moon a minimalist bereft in blue

behind salt flats of clouds. Focused on the few 
clear stars, our beachcombing years to come,
he repeats I promise not to die on you

as if voice can secure his unwaning vow.  
We talk in the dark, our windshield a frame
for the moon. Minimalist, bereft in blue

tonight at dinner a recent widow,
a divorcee, and three single men.
I promise he says not to die on you.

How do monogamous bodies ever get through
grief to the uncoupled side of being human?
The moon’s a minimalist bereft in blue,

a whalebone blur, witness for one, then two
of us. He asks, I answer, our worn tires hum.  
I promise I say not to die on you,
the moon a minimalist bereft in blue.

--Kate Sontag

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