Moiré Effect Moon

Moiré Effect Moon

New Moon  February 9, 2024

Oceanic patterns herald evening here

A loosened palette of sky that welcomes attention

Gray with rain or pink furrowed tundra tilted

Through which we each believe we have seen an owl

Glide from out over the bay toward the green place

Where frogs emote their post-solstice panegyrics

It must be that we are blessed

Floating on a floating bubble, graced

By the long horizontal cape of palpable silence that follows

The gravitas-in-flight of an owl commuting over the harbor

As mammals we feel a need to share the experience

So we point to the white parking lot lamplight

Painting an artificial moon on dark green tide each evening:

See! Do you see that? Isn’t that beautiful?

I need these needless things for life to rise

For some power to pick my eyes & toss them up

Into the silhouette of the conifers along the freeway

Where red brakelights pop-synch above the carbon roar

A reminder to slow my roll home & stop before the bridge

And commune with the solitude of a heron

Intent in industrial shallows, positioned in their naked truth

Who turns toward shadow to vanish into me

This distortion of love weaves the cross-hatch

What calls keeps calling in sequence, slightly altered—

Dawn, night, breathe, yes, again.

Poem by Qayyum Johnson.

Painting by Suiko McCall. Sky of the Present Moment, 2023, detail. Ink on Yupo, 70×60″.