Two Poems by Daniel Rabuzzi

by Daniel Rabuzzi

Long Ghost

Long ghost in a short body

pulled all the bones together,

ribcage made a locker,

femoral pickets kept intruders at bay.

Manticorean hunger unsated

until somewhere past the pancreas,

saving one kidney for later.

Long ghost now long gone, but

who knows if he'll be back?

The Moon Casts a Spell

(Inspired by Caspar David Friedrich’s Seashore with Shipwreck by Moonlight, c. 1825-1830)

A winter moon resembles no other,

Full in the midst of scant,

A flare in the unlight,

Sharp and hard, bright as diamant.

By his light we made for Wismar,

Sails aflunter,

A sprig of hazel on our prow,

Trailing all hope for safe arrival.

Sly he was, the Old Man,

He led us past the Prerow,

But on the strand of Darss,

We met his sickle-sinny drift,

The shearing stairs,

Where he had us reaped and rendered.

Surveys he now his scything,

Accepts the hazel,

Blood rinsed by brine,

Calm-light as clouds race by.