MOONLIGHT

He was a teacher and a mentor
He traded wisdom with the young
We'd go to his place to listen to
Whatever found his tongue
"It's a voice, I think, we're after,
A tone that's deep and true.
We live long to be quiet
And let that voice come through."

He was old and very fragile
He lived out by the creek
Now precious sight was failing him
I'd visit once a week
And take him things he needed
He'd sit up on his bed
He didn't always say a lot
He meant all that he said

"The letters, they grow blurry,"
He said, then gave that look
Of a man whose eyes have read the world,
And sadly closed the book
"It's better when I close my eyes,
Then I see more clearly
The road that runs away from me,
The ones I loved so dearly."

Moonlight joined the lamplight
Through the window next the bed
The here and now was lost again
To storms inside his head
"You still there?," he whispered
When he thought that I was gone
"I lose things in the shadows now;
I need a stronger moon."

From his chest I gently lifted
The book he'd tried to read
"The poems used to shout at me,
But now the words recede."
I was certain he was sleeping
Clicked the lamp and left the moon
To spill its luminescence
To the corners of the room

"My boy visits tomorrow,"
He said, and tugged my sleeve
"It's been a while, don't lock the door
When you get up to leave."
His son, the one who felt betrayed
By all his gypsy chores
Was coming home at last to build
A bridge between their lives

I barely needed headlights
That night as I drove home
The moon and all the saint landwights
Found silver in the chrome
Of my Chevy as I turned on to
The main road back to town
"Do the stars hold meetings to
Decide which one falls down?"

He was a teacher and a mentor
Shared wisdom with the young
We'd go to his house and listen to
The landwights of his tongue
"Hidden things reveal themselves,
The powers of the moon;
Sometimes the soul goes on ahead,
Says, 'Catch up with me soon.'"

DL