Charles deGuire Christoph

From “Reflections”

I

LIKE a bulb of ivory ready to burst

The moon came up beside us;

It reminded me of her beautiful body,

Beginning to swell with my new child.

The swelling moon smiled down

Half in pain, half in fear,

And laid her long fingers on my wife’s hair.

My love beside me pressed my hand,

Proud with white majesty

From the mother moon.

Gentle moon,

Will you kiss it, my baby,

When it lies sleeping

Beside her?

Give it

Her beauty,

Her passion,

Gentle moon.

III

Already her breasts are swollen.

Suddenly the light of the moon penetrates her

And proudly she takes me in her arms.

In the moonlight her hair seems like cold metal,

But when I touch it, it is soft and warm.

She is tired and quiet in my arms,

And listens absently to the little noises of the night.

In her eyes

I see the reflection of the blood running

Through her bosom into the veins of her child.

Moon, chaste one,

Forgive me

If under your rays

I have been brutal with caresses.

You had many breasts then,

You were insatiable then,

Chaste moon.