The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Names of the Moon  
by Alex Grehy

The ancients honoured each full moon

with a name, as if they might be spared the

dooms they brought, more constant

than the seasons.

.

Wolf Moon shines on winter starvation

Snow Moon scourges with killing cold

Worm Moon offers life, yet gives none

Pink Moon brings beautiful but sterile blossom 

Hare Moon speeds by too fast for planting seed

Hot Moon brings drought to blight the land

Thunder Moon’s storms swirls the dust

Red Moon’s haze obscures the stars

Harvest Moon has nothing to reap 

Hunter’s Moon brings death on swift arrows

Frost Moon welcomes winter’s long nights.

.

They honoured them with names,

as if each moon’s cold, indifferent

malice might be turned to mercy.

.

But what of the moon they dare not name, 

the vast moon that dissolves into the sea,

so lovely that the heart aches at its passing?

.

The moon that beguiles lovers

walking hand-in-hand along the shore.

The moon that lays a shining path

between sailors and their wives,

calling, calling, “Come to me. Come to me.”

and so the ripping tides respond. 

.

The setting moon that steals one soul of two,

that rises half-unseen, mocking the lover

left behind with its wholeness.

Unrepentant.

.

Fiction © Copyright Alex Grehy
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from author Alex Grehy:

After a lifetime of writing technical non-fiction, Alex Grey is fulfilling her dream of writing poems and stories that engage the reader’s emotions. Her work has been featured by a wide range of publications including Siren’s Call, Raconteur, Bookends Review, and Toasted Cheese. One of her comic poems is also available via a worldwide network of public fiction dispensers managed by French publisher, Short Edition. Her ingredients for contentment are narrow boating, greyhounds, singing and chocolate. It is a sweet life, yet Alex’ original view of the world has led to her best friend to say ‘For someone so lovely, you’re very twisted!

Please click here to discover more!