Embers

hazelwood place | december 2009 | douglas imbrogno

…………………………..

EMBER POEM

In the light given
all the light this
night, iridescence
of a bronze shield

hair drawn off cheek
pulled back to reveal
Artemis. Or is it Selene?
Crescent moon

tumbling like a stone
in a roil of black-purple
clouds over head.
Don’t doubt, although

I know you must. A hundred
times, the gods say – don’t
go to the hilltop. But you do,
which is, of course,

their point. A deer,
white as Carrarra marble,
on the lip of the
pine-scented woodland

incantatory, whispers:
‘Artemis Agrotera,
Potnia Theron.‘
Flees into the dark.