Flowing waters mirror the moon

First published in The Journal of NJ Poets, Issue 63 (April 2026)

Flowing waters mirror the moon.

Above, a small body hovers for one moment,

Suspended,

And falls,

Shattering the moon into waning crescents.

Tiny legs scramble on the surface

Until they find tension,

Balancing and threatening to sink.

One body would be enough,

But body

Upon body

Upon body

Are piled on her back.

Eight legs support a hundred more—

Innocence clinging to a mother.

Damp feet slowly sink.

Some loosen their futile grasps on the doomed buoy

And are carried away toward oblivion.

Others linger on, exhausted,

Till all warmth below fades away.

They are left displaced and drifting,

But still together,

Perhaps to ultimately emerge from the ever flowing waters.