“Meanwhile the Moon is Missing,” by Daye Phillippo (Poetry ’14)

2014 poetry alum Daye Phillippo was recently featured in One Art. Read an excerpt of “Meanwhile the Moon is Missing” below:

Meanwhile the Moon is Missing

My six-year-old grandson, Sam, has run off with the moon again,
small, white plastic ball, cratered and lit from within that perches

perpetually full on the delicate fingertips of a white plastic hand
on my bookcase’s top shelf—Betty Adcock to A. Van Jordan,

Dickinson halfway between. The shelf is tall and so is Sam,
so the moon is within his grasp which is a metaphor I embrace

as in shoot for the moon! and the cow jumped over and one small step.
His fingertips are hungry for texture, so he rubs the cratered surface

the way phrenologists explored the size and shape of a cranium
to discern character and mental abilities…

 

Read this poem in its entirety here: https://oneartpoetry.com/2022/02/20/meanwhile-the-moon-is-missing-by-daye-phillippo/