ROTHENBERG, Jerome

The Night the Moon was a Spider

The night the moon was a spider

we ran.

Nobody stayed.

The sky grew as black as your eyes.

It was starting to rain.

Sails in the air

broke loose.

Red sails.

You laughed.

The moon was a spider.

A ribbon of blood reached down

from the sky

to the roof of our house.

Red and black.

We were trying to sing.

It was cold.

In the net of the sky

where the bones were hanging

I saw

what I thought was your face.

The scraping of

wheels over rock

in the dark of the moon.

Begin:

The night the soldiers drove by

I rose from our bed,

my hands bound behind me,

and looked.

You were trying to dream.

An icicle broke from the sky

and entered my heart.

The moon was a spider.