Gibbous

this morning

the waning gibbous

hangs before dawn

in the top pane

of the window facing south

fills me with the warm sense

that something good

is slowly returning home

on thin filaments

of pale light

                  *

with every

tedious hour

i watch

the morbid emperor

raise his

swollen hands

as in a foul blessing

to turn unity

into discord

human endeavor

into rot

                  *

some rebellious soul

has cut through

the red tape and named

our latest hope

for the unclaimed

sister of the sun

often i pray artemis

will come again to tend

the fertile undergrowth

embrace with

her fiercest love

the wilderness

and the beasts

who emerge at dusk

from shadows

                  *

but now

i can only wait

in a few more days

the moon again

will be new and dark

in the midnight sky

and justice born

in the fires of

a trillion stars

will for a moment

be the only beacons

in the heavens

passing through

the vast space

that envelops earth

before moving

onward

to illuminate

another place