October 22, 2007

PLAGIARIZING MOONLIGHT
          If you could sign your name to the moonlight,
          that is the thing!

                                        -Mark Tobey


Sometimes waves scribble their initials

          over a path of moonlight. This is the closest

                    to a signature we’ve ever seen. Maybe,

                    or maybe it’s the clouds with their C-curves

          crossing in front of the O—mouth open,

head thrown back and singing.

We cannot steal words if they’re kept

          unspoken, but who wants to live that quietly?

                    Instead, I want to swim in the dark

                    sea across paper, climb the barges

          and docks that float there. Moonlight invites itself

to our desks and we try to nail its beam

to our paper. We’ve been swimming here

          for years, trying to steal what hasn’t been

                    written, diving to the bottom of an unread sea.

—Kelli Agodon
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Previously published in the North American Review

Posted by dwaber at October 22, 2007 04:38 PM