tonight the moon will freely spend
its rich cache of light. the rain
has finally abated and the wind shuffles
through trees newly shorn.
the high-pitched hour of sunset
is hidden behind the hills
like a long-kept secret.

between the wood pile and the kitchen table,
i have been wandering for years.

oceans have shrunk to crossable ponds,
dreams have strung themselves
across the dark like artificial pearls.

once i thought i was the one person
in the world in whose arms
you ought to die...

tonight will be the first hard freeze
of autumn. i shiver in the cold
beside the fireplace, trying to pry
words from beneath my wishbone.
the moon is sipping the ice-cold sky
as the wind recites lovingly the last line of leaves.

once again, i gaze inward into memory
fed on the brightest love,
watered with the darkest jealousy,
scarred from unimagined wounds,

and wounded from imagined pleasure