Volta do mar Moon

Volta do mar Moon

for Rafia

 

New Moon  May 11, 2021

 

 

turn of the sea, turns of the mind

the woman, a best friend, mother

poet, benefactor, de facto auntie

chose to die while spring was alive

 

we keep afloat with food & water

never forget

& company of flowers

never forget

the weight of our freedom

never forget

 

the phone & computer, yearning ports

overbustling with industrial nodes

obscure the rarity of human portage

across the depths, over the deep

 

among the old sailing crew navigators

rarely sleep, looking forward for home

by looking back & recalling each move

of wind, direction of bird, wheel of stars

 

know them by their red eyes

they liberate the circle of water

all the way down to aching blues

black moon, green breath, rising sun

 

she lived well & chose to voyage on

by stopping—no delicious or moist

for her final poem, while mesquite

grew beans & the desert warmed

 

dakinis ride wind to trouble the path

sitting still the shore moves

a circle within a circle

one life, never forget

 

 

Poem by Qayyum Johnson

Painting by Suiko McCall. Wind-Riding Moon, 2021. Ink on paper, digitally manipulated.