WORDS FOR THE MOON
I’m three
and the world’s crazy as it comes into consciousness
and my father’s crazier
(something about my penis tonight)
and I’m wandering around asleep awake
saying the moon’s
Acáshua, the jolly crescent after sunset;
The Wilderness, the halfmoon a ship scudding in the clouds;
Moon the moon’s full
and I say Moon
and get all scared and paralyzed and tingly.
And I grew up and saw men crunch in the moondust in Nikes,
heard an astronaut say anorthosític gabbro.
And I’m a grandfather with gray hair
and my legs hurt falling into sleep
and my father was just as crazy after six hundred more moons
and the moon’s still
Acashua
The Wilderness
Moon