november moon (8 quatrains)

1. new moon

crow on the roof scrambling black shingles;
persimmons droop ripe orange in afternoon

drizzle; chinese takout box dissolving by
the bus stop as that black disc melts unnoticed


2. waxing crescent

geese sing, guttural, on the black green river;
the current’s unintelligible patterns

flow; black tracery of dormant cherry boughs
reach: white curve brushed on cloud’s dusk calligraphy


3. half moon


a plane’s red flash glimpsed through the pine bough’s arc;
catkins’ sparkle under the food cart’s white bulbs—

café window absorbs the sidewalk; above,
this symmetrical taijitu blurred through haze


4. waxing half gibbous

this watercolor sky, blue blanching to gray;
clear above while cirrus wreathes the horizon—

crows have all flown to roost except that one crow
flashing now past the mottled semicircle


5. full moon


succession of headlights magnifies fine rain
to needles; black street casts back traffic signal’s

green sway, cloud’s white hair hovering: still higher,
white disc inscribed gray, indecipherable


6. waning gibbous


two red pencils, two blue pencils, unsharpened
on a retaining wall; pruned ironwood branches

snarled curbside—white rose shrinks petal by petal
under silver light darkening right to left


7. last quarter


sedan parked by the electrical meter:
nickel gray; bronze elephant statue weathered

emerald; pigeons wheel from the fire escape:
silver bowl tips into western overcast


8. waning crescent


white black gold balloons tied to a sandwich board
lift & bob; the storm drains clogged, puddles swelling—

black wires trace connections against the sky—
stagnant clouds have absorbed this month’s white remnant



Jack Hayes
© 2016