Sidney Wade
August 2003

Thirteen Moons


I

Whole white face
In front of the black else.
The whole white world is drenched.


II

Woman moon.
Row deeper into the moon water.


III

Where is that immortal thing?
In the trees, now, naked to the waist.


IV

The Queen of the Night. White-armed and cow-eyed.
O moon O moon O moon O you are darkly shadowed meat.


V

Joyflight and joystick
Have nothing to do
With this white beauty,


VI

This beautiful female nude,
Severe and frosted to the sky.


VII

Light ices
The frozen lake
And the stiff dark woods.
Whiteness on the white snow.
A rigid cleaning.


VIII

Rise over,
Madonna of the moon,
Occasional losses.


IX

Once long ago a piece of her stone heart fell to the earth.
Her dog followed blindly.
He sits still under the snowy pines.


X

How to feed it what to feed it?
Spent food. Light food.


XI

O Pearl
Of Great Price
In the wide black hold.


XII

The moon is the mother of death and beauty.


XIII

Under the large light and its dark eaves:
Women whispering to women.

from Celestial Bodies, Lousisiana State University Press, 2002.