Perceptua

November 08, 2022

Blood Moon

Verse

I’m looking for the blood moon in the suburbs.

I can’t see shit under these streetlights;

then my one-eyed dog shits under a streetlight.

We head for the receptacle of custom & waste,

but I spy the local news, their stadium of lights

on a war horse diesel generator, the laser sight

of their shoulder-mount telescope trained on the earth—

I decide to find another place for shit.

On the next street a man is walking

in a reflector vest inlaid with red lightbars.

This guy’s a vein, he’s looking for the blood moon.

I follow his cardiovasculations like a wounded animal,

a bird I shot once wishing it was over.

Then a woman in a scarlet robe steps into the street,

says in the voice you fear she’d have

I’m looking for the blood moon.

I point in her direction—it’s over there.

The crone spits into her hand & makes a sign;

as fortune I was a harlot & a wife,

as chance I’m a loveless fickle mistress—

there’s blood everywhere, but no heart left to break.

I saw the blood moon dull & setting.