Forgetting Moon

(from the moon series)

stands in the February river, pole in hand,
swings the fly back and forth, feels the cold
current move while time slips away
and memory, once jagged, splinters
and disappears, swept on downstream.

Loses sense off the needles, the kids
come and go, every summer, every week,
every weekend, they haven't been in years,
the soft reminders of the path, the one foot
after another,           gone,
the half crescent moon lays on the floor,
vanishing, the dirty kitchen,
the burner left on, the pain in the eyes,
watching an ancient, well loved orb,
veer off orbit, lost among the milky way,
a long goodbye,

a slow realization that it can no longer do
a simple revolution around the earth.