WENDY L. HAMMOND
The Man In The Moon

me and winston-salem
fill the sky with smoke tonight,
watching the rest of you
stretch to wrap yourselves around the moon,
and in the distance of broken light
spots and streaks of repented sacrifice
strip themselves of life

and you believe
you will be replenished
if you ask forgiveness

such starvation, thirst and hunger
cannot measure
against deprivation of spirit,
the solitude and molestation
of innocence

and our children still believe
in the man in the moon,
dishes running away with spoons,
and all convictions that make us foolish,
because we teach them this

each raised arm, each eye gazing upward
demolishes the concept
that any of us are really alone,
and in this interaction, contact
with unknown catalysts,
we cling to heroes
who aren't heroes at all

we grow miles tall in our own disbelief
that we are anything more than
-this

a large emptiness
trying to fill each other