Phases of the Moon by Lynn Kozma
Happy New Year!
Here’s another from a book found in the bookcase. The title of the book is the same as the title of this poem.
Phases of the Moon
By Lynn Kozma
Bright moon stares
from the great bowl of sky
sailing weightless
glowing with cold fire
impersonal as a stranger.
We say it shows the face
of a man, is made of green
cheese, sheds its skin,
or covetous, steals
the sun’s fire. One day
we calculate its distance
from earth, arrive on its
rocky, cratered plains,
at once dispel the mystery.
I prefer the inaccessible moon,
the maddening phantom moon,
the cabalistic, lopsided slipstream
Queen of Night, disappearing,
born again whole and new,
silvering my skin, turning
my heart back fifty years
to a dance in the woods
under its spell, aflame with
my first mad
fall
into love.
