A Moonlight Kiss — A Poem by Lisa Rhodes-Ryabchich
Lisa Rhodes-Ryabchich's poem "A Moonlight Kiss" captures a fleeting moment through rich and unexpected imagery that blends the surreal and the intimate. As with Federico Garcia Lorca's pronounced references to the moon in his poetry, Lisa Rhodes-Ryabchich verses transform the moon into a character,
A Moonlight Kiss
The brave moon came to my window
Shining round & bright & white—
A bald plump man with blotches
Underneath a fog of thick, black clouds—
An elephant's womb, grey & expansive—
Vulnerable & hairier than lint from the dryer
Or mammoths' wool. I imagined witches riding
By on their brooms, shrieking with black hats.
Then the moon appeared archaic as a peeled potato,
Engulfed by a dying evil world.
Soon it appeared again smiling, creating foresight.
And there I saw your bright light beaming,
A winter light—a life light, something to hold onto
—look forward to—
A kind eye, spotlighting my nighttime slumber,
Kissing me goodnight— a long, sweet kiss—
A remember me kiss, a protective kiss—
One that you look for when the day has absences.