Dayspring

                     Dayspring

The morning moon is setting. It is still

And not. The light is light and fading but

Not fading. Dawn is hovering in the chill

Of lunar death that is not death. Life is cut

From death as if a sliver of a far

Lost moon, though cryogenic in its cold,

Is counting on the dark to save this scar

As frigid as its shape to hold white gold

In crescents like this one, to make it last

As long as light and matter linger on.

This wish, though it is also quite as vast

As God creating, is the primal dawn.

  A vision opens up composed of light

    As faint as dying yet as daybreak’s rite.

Phillip Whidden