Dark Moon, Aleppo

Rare dark moon,
Greedy with its light tonight:
Scuffed disc, hovel, hole,
Hangs above Aleppo,
--Tycho crater's arid,
Though it looks like a pool--
In city siege below,
Two million people
Have no water,
Rare dark moon,
Greedy with its light tonight:
Lunar dust--pitiless--
Ashen as bombarded town,
Faces haunt rubble,
Altered by blood and dross,
--masque of loss--
Rare dark moon,
Greedy with its light tonight:
Misses Saint Simeon's Pillar,
Once ladder to sky,
Limestone chunks
Struck by barrel bombs
Resemble vertebrae unstrung,
Rare dark moon,
Greedy with its light tonight,
Genius redacted for seasons

Laura Stickney  2016


photograph of dark moon, NASA