‘Cynthia Moon’ and Other Poetry by Clinton Van Inman

Cynthia Moon

Go drag your white skull before blind seas
That tumble dazed to your mono-eyed magic
Go string the treadmill tides around the poles
And make all starry lovers pale and sick

Go tell Neptune when the night is through
Charm him too with your waxing and waning
Awaken the Triton and all your mermaids too
Let them revel in your nocturnal wandering

But you can’t catch me with those half smiles
As your borrowed brilliance exposes you
I have seen how your darker side beguiles
As I learned too late that you are never true

Go charm some other star struck rhapsodist
Lure him too into your midnight mist.

The Real Missing Mass

They say that most of you is missing
Perhaps from your most private places
Something more than just an arm or leg
And deeper than your darkest spaces.
Researchers conclude as much as ninety percent
Lost deduced from a long line of X’s and O’s
But it takes no greater science to tell me
Your muted mysteries no one knows.
I too have peered down your opaque passages
Have felt your fractal pulse dimensionless
Have seen your eyes hidden in a veil of stars
And knew that you are quite featureless.

Like staring at the stars you cannot be seen directly
And all your skies are blue from a distance only.

Clinton Van Inman was born at Walton-on-Thames, England in 1945 and graduated with a BA from San Diego State University in 1977. Currently, he is teaching high school in Tampa Bay where he lives with his wife, Elba.  Recent publications include : The Metric, UK Poetry Library, Journal of Formal Poetry, Indiana Spirits, Poetry, BlazeVox, Foliate Oak Journal, Poetica Victorian, Belle Reve Journal, BlackCatPoems, The Inclement, The Tower Journal to name a few.  He is tentatively planning to publish a book of poetry entitled, “Walton Way.”

Featured Image: “View of Dresden at Full Moon” by Johan Christian Dahl (1788 – 1857).