Bathing in the Moon by Lorraine Caputo

Image | Cottonbro Studio

BATHING IN THE MOON

 

​Shadowed pines & robles

​against the royal sky

​Venus stunning in the depths

​of stars … & beyond

​the plutonian mystery

 

I await the full moon

to rise above

cragged snowy peaks,

tendrils of steam

drifting over the pools, over

boulders smoothed

by time,

my muscles

loosening in the hot

waters of this spring

 

​In this austral spring

​the eastern sky lightens

​with that Taurus lune

​nearing the horizon,

​our bright star

​reflected in the clear

​mineral pool

 

listening to the crickets,

the unseen river rushing

through the forest,

that moon so slowly rising,

Venus quickly sliding

away …

the steam tendriling

the water, tendriling

around me, into

my pores, to

my roots

 

​Luna now

​peeks between the boughs

​of the silhouette

​roble and pine,

​the vapors penetrate

​deeper, deeper,

​callouses falling away

Her light 

rippling now

across this warmth,

across this pool,

tendriling into my self

& Self 

Originally published in Lorraine’s chapbook, Notes from the Patagonia (dancing girl press, 2017)

© Lorraine Caputo

Lorraine Caputo

Poet-translator Lorraine Caputo’s works appear internationally in over 500 journals and 23 collections of poetry – including In the Jaguar Valley (dancing girl press, 2023). She is a Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee. She journeys through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth.

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