“With the Darkness North to Maine”

(c) by Kerri Nicole McCaffrey

One indigo night
wrapped in a bracelet of pine
(and sweet balsam breeze)—
the moon
floated
on tranquil pond
steady as a flame—
a communion wafer

for the lonely—
or some sizzling coin.
A child—blessed and restless—
breathless—
watched from shore,
as a trout
struck the orb

swallowing all that light
and whirled
back to the bottom—
its scales
fiery sequins—
pregnant with reflection
it carried the dawn.

And the coin on the surface,
still bobbed, unspent—
waiting for others
who would do the unthinkable—
partake of light
in the spreading darkness,

leaving their whorls—
becoming luminaries.