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A Jealous Moon

Missing image

 

 

 

She drifts aimlessly beneath a brilliant canvas of stars,

replete with chagrin as shadows fall.

 

Her tendrils seek mighty remnants of sunlight,

never quite able to touch him

with her wisdom or woe.

 

Her pale face shows a weariness of canyons,

of parched landscapes that cannot be sown with seed.

 

Her song stretches across the slow night sky

with subtle understanding that her music is mild and mellow,

a mere whisper of wildness existing among untamed forces. 

 

Still, she controls tides as she waxes and wanes, 

echoes of change she will not diminish with her sorrow. 

 

Her memories falter, halting her orbit for a slivered moment, 

as she recalls a time when earth was new

and her shrine, burnished with idolatry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author notes



anonymous contest


art: "moon angel" by =riamali



prompt: a jealous moon



"A Jealous Moon"

by CarolDesjarlais


Zilpah whispered with gods and goddesses:
Thunder spoke a god’s name and told her
of awful sacrifices of even the purest priestesses.

Roughing up hide to cover wooden braces,
she wore her hands raw and bled on tenting
materials she had painstakingly punctured and sewn
with sinew of her long, dry, days waiting for a full moon smile.

When she rose, she rose like a lunar bleed across the horizon;
staining the sky with crimson silk; a leakage of woman
who respects pain and passion.

Dancing above the teat-shaped tent; a lunar reflection
of first mother’s face, in a mirror, flooded with moonlight
from a slit in the folds that should have shut out even this.

Both were jealous of a sister’s face: fury and flaws
in step and misstep of an ancient dance between women

©Carol Desjarlais

http://allpoetry.com/poem/5322963




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Comments

1 - 6 of 6

  • Heavenly Angel gold member
    November 19
    ?
    Edit | Reply
    Oh this is brilliant!
    I so love this piece!
    I could stand forever and look at a full moon and write VOLUMES of poetry
    The very best of luck to you!!!!


  • CarolDesjarlais silver member
    November 9

    Edit | Reply
    How the moon has evoked writers, artists, magicians and mystics...and rightly so, for her mystery can not be owned. I believe she remembers a time before she was burnished with idolatry... a time when people worshiped what they knew, in Nature, that had such control over lives. Today, they shoot rockets into her gut...so like man, aye, who is no respecter of any woman symbol? bravo, love this beautiful thoughtful piece.


  • kaibab silver member
    November 8

    Edit | Reply
    Jealous moon is indeed slivered,
    and what we fear is soo delivered
    incubating green breath shivered,
    when night is long and so alone

    lovely as always scribe


  • mgmc gold member
    November 8

    Edit | Reply
    Beautifully written! Wonderful imagery! I particularly love the last stanza! Skill, as always,
    clear in execution!


  • Black Narcissus gold member
    November 8
    Edit | Reply
    So gently it sways.


  • Danny Beatty gold member
    November 7

    Edit | Reply


    the moon has haunted artistic people for centuries and they write of her visage with awe and splendor reverberating in their words. this is beautiful.

    good luck in the contest.



1 - 6 of 6