"new moon meditation"

new moon meditation

For Sheila

new moon & 3 silver clouds to the east—over-
head a smattering of planets & airplanes, orange

security lights in the lot, white picket fence
flecked with mold, a red tulip bloom long

since gone past—asking where the sky be-
gins & ends we realize it's at the edges of us,

bringing heaven here with us, the evening’s
aroma of ginger & sesame oil in the skillet,

this evening when the moon is after all a ghost—
tea roses in crimson bloom in the next yard, yellow-

green hirsute bamboo stand on the avenue observed
in mist so fine it could easily be forgotten—

as the new moon can’t recollect the full moon on
view & silver through the vinyl blind drawn back—

because when we look into what we call heaven
we see our reflection enormous as stratocumulus clouds,

as infinitesimal photons escaping a new moon’s
halo—star fragments falling into existence & into words

the way rainfall collects by inches & fractions in a drained
pond to reflect the moon when it someday returns


Jack Hayes
© 2014