Hunter's Moon

My thanks to Eve for supplying the idea for this,
and as always, to G for the inspiration.

The hunter’s moon full silver,
a radiance amending our night
one illumined shade of midnight blue,
only barely dark, the numberless lush
shadows from forest edge retreat
to lurk under the bows, huddled
refugees by glittering moonlight.

Scanning meadow, nervous
tufts of deer with tawny coats
vaguely glistening, flaring nostrils
anxiously sniffing a restless breeze
for prowling coyotes, maybe
a wolf or bobcat at times keeping
strange company under pale stars
bemused in a night that mocks dawn.
I find myself whispering prayers
for those drowsing creatures
roused to terror by banshee wails
and shrill calls to kill. Thought
struck dumb with powerlessness,
panic numbed beyond escape.

The barest fog has climbed
up from the sea, stealthily
as ghosts and wraithlike spread
embracing the last slivered beams
caught in a thin glimmering
that pierces a growing darkness
just before dawn. I have watched
this night away, a silent unarmed
sentry with no further desire
for hunting except perhaps as I drowse
and dream, searching under this last
light that perhaps brings me
home to you at last.