A New Aphrodite
©May 3rd, 2017
By Vijaya Sundaram
Spinning slowly, the moon rotates,
Silver-skirted, courting the dark.
Stars stare down, coldly glittering.
I call to her, she does not hear.
Busy spinning a web of light,
She turns like a top in a dream.
Waves, crablike, rush towards the shore
Lift up her curling skirts, expose
Long stretches of limb, softest sand.
Somewhere, an oil-coated bird gasps
Crumpling upon a distant shore.
No one will see her die alone.
Somewhere, a bright pod of right whales
Call upon the sky, deep and sad.
They disturb my restless slumber.
Somewhere, the last of its own kind
Lays down its head in exhaustion,
Gaunt and starving, betrayed by life.
We slumber in this hemisphere
They toil in fields and homes in that,
No one will listen anymore.
The tides rush in, the tides rush out.
Ants are scurrying all around
Intent upon their destruction.
Somewhere, She will rise from the foam,
Bring all the Graces with her,
Perhaps the moon will respond, then.
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