Once in a Blue Moon

Jeanie Sanders

August 6, 2023

Blue moon come back

to linger over a perfect Texas day.

Framing the edge of the sky like

a pin that holds the World together.

Behind that pinned edge

another World perhaps

that is as green and hot as this day.

The smell of which produces

a rush of memories.

Houses that were so big

now grown smaller when visited.

The piano that Grandma lay upon 

to sleep and read, dipping snuff

as she turned the pages.

My cousin and I playing where

no adult voice could reach

hidden away in the dark under the piano.

For we had secrets to whisper that

would lose their magic if overheard.

And in the dark guarded by

the returning moon

we looked up into the sky

with the magic of the day still in our heads.

And saw huge animals with green eyes

lurking in the trees staring.

Giving fuel for the next day’s conversation

as we pretended to be afraid.

For would they come again

under the magic of the light?  

Jeanie Sanders is a poet and artist.  She lives in Lytle, Texas. Her poems have been published in The Texas Observer, San Antonio Express News, The Texas Poetry Calendar, Passager, La Voz de Esperanza, and several anthologies.  She is the author of two poetry books, The Book of the Dead: Poems and Photographs and The Dispossessed.