Like a Rising Full Moon
Lyric moment: from Rilke

He is lying there
motionless…
drifting in and out.

Momentarily,
a feeling, a sharp twinge,
arises from his loin,
a pleasant shudder moving up
through his torso to his tongue—

a taste of lemon-buttered artichoke’s heart
or, the smell of dried squid—

His head goes blank.
A rush of dark waves—
an oceanic throb flooding his body,
then, slowly subsides
into a tiny obsidian drop inside his head.

From it, a face,
a face of woman smiling
rising like a full moon,
filling up the entire inside his head—

A peony bloom
in the depth of his own garden.

 

published in Lily Poetry Review, issue 1, (2019)