Neil Ellman’s last poem to appear here was An Excerpt from the Diary of a Man Growing Old: Elegy for Clarabel (March 2013).

Moon
(after the woodcut in the Home is a Foreign Place series by Zarina Hashmi)
By Neil Ellman

If it disappeared
like a magician’s coin
behind his ear
he would have to recreate
the moon from memory
scratches on a Lascaux wall
and scraps of poetry
the same as it had always been
insouciant, unmoved
by prayers
indifferent to the sun
that gives it light
or with another face
lascivious, painted red
a bawdy whore
who walks the dimlit skies
accepting every gift
of love, light and life–
whatever he wants it to be
he could reinvent the moon
and make it reappear
at his fingertips
reflected in his light.