Seanah Roper
Moon swims up, bright bloom
Surfacing blackwater sky, dragging
Her net of stars, fishing
For compliments from tree tops which
Nested in darkness, only hum.
Tremorous limbs shadow dance the glitter.
The whole thing wrenched tight as a fist,
Cold as cold as cold, in the black belly of night,
Not even the ravens move.
No sharp tooth gleams
Beneath blue light, no menaces lurk,
The only hounds about are within.
Real beasts plod not over snowdrift
But crouch in the the ribs, in heart cavities,
Sunless cages, skin-tucked.
Moon remains the only soft thing
In a dry, buckled stretch.
I look down at strange hands
Knuckle skin splitting,
Each line a deep gorge
Purple, bloodless.
I rest my eyes where the light will be,
Holding, holding.