Grand Prize Winning Poem
2011 Dancing Poetry Festival
IF THE MOON CAN FLOAT
By Elaine Christensen, Sandy, UT
If night can hunker like a thief
in the foothills,
waiting to steal tree by tree
across the valley,
Then I can kneel, an old woman
in a dark room,
prayers spiraling up the chimney,
curling themselves in the coils of God’s ears.
If prayers can escape
through layered shingles of my roof,
through chinks in brick walls,
then I can hide here, a velvet mole,
safe from the yellow beak,
bent and sharp,
the flapping wings,
that floodlight moon.
If the moon can float all night in the lake,
like a thin smile,
an empty canoe,
God’s all-seeing eye almost shut,
then I can swim out into the black stream,
a tiny minnow,
a flash of quicksilver
one fish in a school of stars.
If stars can blink on in the dark
like street lamps,
if street lamps can pool their light
on every corner like gold coins,
if gold coins can link their profiles
into shining bracelets
across the city,
then I can face morning,
arms outstretched,
palms open,
fingers extended,
each, a ray of sun.
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| Elaine Christensen, Sandy, UT, takes her on-stage bow with the dancers |
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