Almanac Poetry: Sickle Moon
Sickle moon. [Source Wikimedia Commons.]
Sickle Moon
Sickle moon,
the light you send
is watery-thin,
weak as piss.
You’re a sick old man
with a prostate problem
who has to shake it out in dribbles;
unable to perform his task
with the effortless ease of former times.
I gaze into the night, depressed.
What a poor excuse for illumination!
When I want light
all you can give
is a dismal, far-off glimmer.
Invalid pensioner
in the depths of winter,
rheumy melancholic
in a larder dark and bare,
your days of full-bloom health
are far behind you
—aren’t they, sick old man?
You’ll fade away to nothing soon.
We both know it, don’t we,
sick and sallow,
wrecked and weary,
dilute, dreary,
sickle moon?
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Just a wild hunch you prefer a full moon Kevin?!!!
Yes, Luke! A full moon’s more exciting, but maybe more freaky things happen when it’s in the sky!
There’s no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact its all dark.
Interesting viewpoint, Dips.
In many respects, I agree with with you, especially if one is speaking/writing metaphorically – the more I think about the moon, the weirder, more odd it seems to me. WTF is it doing up there, really?!