New Moon October: Counting Stars

My life as an uncounted moon

one of uncountable numbers

of radiant dark moons

Each moment sparks out

against a teeming vastness

the new presence

silhouette/outline

defined by absence

a momentary star-pass

amid dark mountain swells

It can be hard to be still—

to allow the manifold

to manifest wordlessly

From looking far and out,

gaze up-close and down

multiples of myriads

all manner of kinship

webbed together

in easy chaos

We owe our lives to other moons

We choral gratitude, stepping lightly freedom and radiance-flushed alive in trusting the give-away spider woman’s return

Text by Qayyum Johnson Painting by Suiko Betsy McCall