Guest poet: Dan Rattelle

a set of lunes

Endymion sleeps,
a bluebell
beneath a blue moon

/

Grace perfects nature
shadows branch
across whitewashed brick

/

Grail moon filling in
her lips were
the drawn bow, the string

/

The moon is: a lyre
plucked above
funereal yews

       a protestant bell
       change rung to
       complete abstraction

              a scruple-spoonful
              of water
              for the rich man’s tongue

/

Leafless the branches
are fractures
in the brittle sky

       Drop down ye heavens
       our votives
       glow Gaudete rose.

Dan Rattelle is the author of Painting Over the Growth Chart (Wiseblood, 2024). He lives in the Berkshire foothills of Massachusetts.