What the Moon Says at Sunrise

I’m going away now

but that does not mean

I don’t love you.

In fact, I’m quite fond

of your parted lips.

Let me seal them

with mine before I

disappear.  Open them

only to eat or to speak.

Give me until sunset

when I will return 

to break your promise.

(First appeared in The Southern Review: 51.2)

Stopping

Not starting.  A certain

level of discomfort should

be expected.  What difference

does this triptych

display?  The unblinking

phantom disregards

your command as we

all suspected.  You

think you can cut me 

out of your life but

our aperture never

closed.  You can

bandy about in your

underpants all you want

but I know where you sit

and I know where we stand