october moon (8 quatrains)

1. new moon

three crows hunched on the chain link fence in drizzle;
black bicycle locked to the corner staple,

which is blue—seven of spades on a sidewalk
dry patch: unseen halo around this black moon


2. waxing crescent


green streetcar pauses amidst blue-white headlights;
etched glass shelter reflects its approach under

green Chinese elms—gray overcast opens west;
a silver comma suspended in deep blue


3. half moon


on one sidewalk a broken red umbrella;
on another the red delicious tilted—

sharp angle of light strikes the zelkovia;
half-circle slants aloft, white apparition


4. waxing gibbous

one goose afloat in Tilikum’s blue shadow;
flock of gulls & kayaks ride the ripples’ flash--

quake & rattle as the train crosses the bridge;
imperfect sphere coming up above black wires


5. full moon

what the rain says translates to incoherence;
the wind chimes’ metallic tune rings haphazard—

clouds hasten east, flushed lurid with city lights;
amongst them a perfect circle shines blurred white


6. waning gibbous

a basketball court slick with rain & leaf fall;
puddles surround second base on the ballfield—

on Burnside guardian lion dogs loom black;
diminishing silver sphere where night clouds break


7. last quarter

the sweet gum drops mottled leaves like stars falling;
outside the hospital, brown-streaked mushrooms swell—

an arc of white plates laid out on a wet lawn:
daytime moon: equilibrium of decline


8. waning crescent


a dozen crows erupt from the hospital’s
level roof; such high windows, such golden lights

arrayed above distant chairs: in gray-white sky
an open parenthesis seeking closure


Jack Hayes
© 2016