new october moon

I will not say nor provoke
a pity with a such vulgar display
as to describe a man cupped
in his deathbed.

I will tell you however, today
no moon rises as yesterday,
parenthetic and thin as a lip —
it held no words.

And I will tell you, Mars then
slipped in among the trees, ticked
with ochre, blind — bemused —
without gesture, without grief.

Image: NASA on Unsplash