Great sadness envelopes the night

 
Empty nest and hollow sky

“Under our ribs our hearts are bloody stars.” ~~ Joy Harjo

Say you swallowed the moon like a wafer
and all the luminosity and myth is in you absorbed
through membrane into blood. The moon
in all its phases, burning through
the body with a fullness and ache.

In you, bile rises and falls pulled by new gravity;
sickness and relief in equal draw.
How this satellite rolls over your abdomen
like miniature elbows and knees. The same
intensity that a child brings in its
daily recess along the womb’s ridge.

Say the moon moves into your spleen
the sudden absence of light gnaws a hole that grows
between lung and rib, like scaffolding torn
away. Your heart becomes as lonely
as the sky, begins to miss that dedicated path,
translucent face, the dim arc of light.

Then great sadness envelopes the night,
anticipating those cold velvet depths,
reaching for a brightness that no longer
orbits your world.

~~~

Taking a Meanders break for a little meandering of other sorts. Be kind, be safe.