Poems October 1996
Teenage girl in midnight
for my daughter
You noticed it before I did,
the flat spot
in the moon’s low corner
(or quadrant)
caused maybe by a cloud, you said,
or some disturbance we can’t see.
While you looked up at it,
from your feet
the long black plank
of form and flesh
stretched in shadow behind you.
You must have felt its pull,
because you turned
from the flawed moon
and faced it,
like something you’d forgotten there.
I felt real happiness and pain
for your time in the world,
where it’s easy
to feel two things, both sharp, at once.
Caught between your shade
and source of light,
you smiled.
It seemed
you knew, as you’d not known before,
that it was you,
singular, selfed.
The moon changes
in and through you now.
Tide. Wave.
I want to catch you
where you stand,
in something more than words.
But you’re beyond my wish, too, now,
into yourself,
living into some life
of strange time past this one we share,
strange and all your own,
where your moons
will plane away
the details of your presence.
The pillars that your bluejeans make.
The cotton blouse roughened around your heart.
A Message from the Editors
Support our crucial work and join us in strengthening the bonds of civilization.
Your donation sustains our efforts to inspire joyous rediscoveries.
This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 15 Number 2, on page 37
Copyright © 2024 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com
https://newcriterion.com/issues/1996/10/teenage-girl-in-midnight