Imagined

A moon imagined

Behind whimpering clouds

Relieved from the gaze of

Lamps and rooftops

She must be round and plump

With her earth-born goddess

And her magical rabbit

With a Sisyphus

And an undying tree

She must squint at the sun

Blinded from her better reflections

On unscattered clouds

From remote messages

Sent before she was born

She would rather put on some shades

Or hide her face

But that would be

Half a moon away

She would tune in to a blue rock

To its vibes and tides

To occasional chatters

She would think with the back of her head

Of people imagined

With a verse about her. 

- 9/10/2022 at Carrboro, a cloudy, rainy midautumn festival.

Eight hundred miles

A broken side mirror

puts the present behind her

en route

to eight hundred miles of goodbye

to a kingdom of gentle palms

lifting all wings

to the sun

to a bookmark at each laugh

or quarrels too

buried

between the seas

to the eyes of truth

cornered 

yet undefeated

to an open book

of missing letters

of pressing riddles

with each mission unfulfilled

to a wound 

that irons a dream

onto a legacy

to a love

to a memory

to a catastrophe. 

5/12/2022 at Carrboro NC

In memory of my beloved mentor, Dr. Emmanuelle Tognoli (1974~2022).