Astropoetica: Moonchild, by Steve Klepetar

A Night at Sea Moonchild, where do you wander on this night
flooded with stars?
On whose glorious boat do you sail, your arms
strung with tough webbing,
stretched across the deck like thick-veined wings?

Which gods ride with you across the gullies of sky?
I count Sun, who drinks rivers dry, and his sister
Moon,
well known to you who burst full grown
from her shining womb, your mother
who pulls tides
so easily, tough sail maker dragging oilskins on the beach.

Close by sits Wind, ringmaster
of dancing leaves, whose colors mark the fever
of the world.
And pulling on the ropes, Time,
that master thief, tacks hard into black gravity’s swirling pool.

Steve Klepetar teaches literature and writing at Saint Cloud State University, where he spends as much time as possible talking with astronomers, who are even madder than poets.