Sunset // Moonrise

Sunset

I noticed the sunset today for the first time

in far too long. I thought I had forgotten

what it looked like. Too long clouds had

covered the skies, or night had drawn its

star-covered blanket over itself by the time

I stepped out and looked up. Not today.

There is no man in the moon. But there is

a painter in the sun. He reaches out, his

brushes tipped with nimbus clouds, and

drenches the clear blue sky in shades and

hues of orange that fade somehow to deep

blues and inky purples. Like the stain on

the jeans I’m wearing tonight. I wore them

to look good for you. I hadn’t noticed the

stain until I was already walking across the

sweeping lawn, still green in the fading light.

I think of all the things I wanted for us here.

You never loved this place the way I did.

I’m Apollo, chasing the sun across the sky

as I travel west. The air is cool on my face

along the way and I won’t catch you before

the colors are gone and I’ve lost the opportunity

to kiss you in the dying light of the only star

worth looking at. According to you. Night falls.

Colors fade like missed chances,

words I never said out loud, things you never

told me when they could have mattered. I basked

in the warmth of your glow, never stopping to

appreciate the magical moments when it disappeared.

When the sun slips away, it takes the warmth with it.

Moonrise

Dusky hues and painted shadows

slip and fall, rattling ting-a-ling-ting,

silver light bathes Artemis in her lake.

Acteon thinks he’s Apollo.

Silver light casts no shadows,

allows no deception.

His remorse runs deep and wide,

a river cutting through stone,

waiting to be bridged by deception.

Fond memories drown in rivers

too wild to swim. Too dangerous.

We tried to build a raft.

Rafts split and break,

timbers shatter, snap-crack-rip.

At the mercy of a current we can’t control.

Enough is enough.

Let me go.

Inspiring Works:

The Fray, Happiness

• This poem is all about duality: one side and another. It's about the two ways people react under pressure, and the way something of mine almost fractured under the pressure. This song, Happiness, explores the duality of being happy, how great sorrow and great joy can be nearly inseparable at times. And how one isn't possible without the other.

Unfortunately I could not take a picture like this, but this is pretty much exactly what I saw in my head when writing these poems.

Apollo and Artemis were obviously inspirations in this piece.