STANFORD, Frank

The battlefield where the moon says I love you

…..
she said Francis I am dead from now on but I will live as long as the cloud
stays in front of the moon and I looked up and saw the black ship
like a great wolf after the neck of the moon

…
and so the grass was a quilt patched by one night and though I couldn’t see her
I knew she was there and I loved her I was with the girl with black hair
and when she lifted her legs it was as if
she wanted to balance the moon on her toes to keep it from falling
but I knew all along it was the black cloud that needed to stay in place
and so in that country where I was once and now and will be before I was
where I spoke the words holy holy holy Lord God Almighty all the earth
is full of Thy glory where the whistling swans ride the backs of the white
horses of the river where the boxcars and skiffs are full
of drunken troubadours

.…
in the country where my dreams are like bark
peeled off by lightning I was with her the girl with black hair
while the wolf had the moon by the throat

…..