Luna 


I walk home at August moonrise         So does a window.    
past a bright window.  
                                       Sounds of a moonlight night 
Inside the room                        are softer than rainwater.
an old woman sees the full moon  
and turns off the lamp.                Before responding to a face   
                                       at the window, first ascertain whether   
Afterimage shines in my eye:           it's looking out or looking in.  
pale face, snowy hair.  
                                       Also, whether it's the moon   
Moonlight streams over the dark house  or someone else.    
like cool milk.  
                                       None of this, of course,  
When the lamp is out, is the woman     explains the perfumes of August     
still standing there alone?            or the way the moon silvers the grass.

In memory, her upraised hand glows;    Turn around and look again   
in the house it is darker than shadow. She is still there.  

I stand on the sidewalk,               The first question has not   
moonstruck.                            been answered.  What was it?  

Metaphysics of an old lamp:  
the shade has less meaning  
than a soul's body.  

Physics of a window:  
Glass is thicker than night air,  
thinner than wonder.  

The question of whiteness   
bears looking into.    
   

                                              -Julie Alger 
  published in Potato Eyes, No. 6, Fall/Winter 1991-1992