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Cover: Full Moon Over Pond
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Moonset
I saw the full moon
gazing at herself in
the surface of a pond
at 5:00 this morning
like a lunar Narcissus.
Her perfectly
round reflection
floated like a pearl
on the still water
until she noticed
that I was watching
and her radiant face
suddenly glowed
with a coral blush,
and she crouched
bashfully behind
the shield of trees
across the field
and disappeared.
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Morning in Sarasota Bay
Brown pelicans wheel
and plunge like arrows
into the warm water.
Their bills pierce the surface
to snatch a pouchful of herring
in this town that loves its sushi.
Shrouded beneath a beach towel,
the middle-aged woman
with dimpled thighs
makes her way to the water’s edge,
hungry like the pelicans,
but too timid to plunge in.
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Spring hovers nearby.
In the garden, tulip bulbs
tingle with promise.
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Twilight alchemy.
Onondaga Lake shimmers.
Water turns to gold.
***
Wind chimes dance at dawn.
Hymns rise from their hollow throats.
Hallowed be their song.
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Desert Habitat
I shall live in a house
made of Navajo flutes.
Desert breezes
will blow sweet melodies
through my open windows.
Sonoran sunsets
will melt lavish ribbons
of turquoise and vermilion
into the sunbaked roof.
Four-limbed saguaros will cast
cruciform shadows
across the desert floor
wishing they could dance.
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Sacrament
What makes a table an altar?
Offerings of memory and intention
consecrated with phlox and sunflowers,
a grass mat that roots us to the earth,
prayer books and devotionals
with pages dog-eared and underlined,
a small photo of a church organist,
hands poised above the keyboard
calling forth the instrument’s voice.
A visual hymn of thanksgiving,
on an altar alive with icons of love.
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Gratitude
You tell me to count my blessings.
Easier to ask an ant
to count the petals of a peony.
Circumnavigating her pink planet,
she scales the supple landscape,
each petal revealing
a new surface to explore.
She will always lose count,
so lost in the sweet nectar.
I am that ant
drunk on the sweetness
that surrounds me,
grateful for every blessing,
powerless to count that high.
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Gloria Heffernan © 2021
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Gloria Heffernan is the author of the poetry collection, What the Gratitude List Said to the Bucket List, (New York Quarterly Books). She has written two chapbooks: Hail to the Symptom (Moonstone Press) and Some of Our Parts, (Finishing Line Press).