A CAVE OF ANGELFISH HUDDLE AGAINST THE MOON

By Ron De Maris

Put an ear to the light at fall

of dark and you will hear

nothing. This pale luminescence

that drifts in upon them

makes a blue bole of their caves,

a scare of their scything

tails. They tell

in the bubbling dark of images

that come in upon them

when light spreads like an oil slick

and sea fans

that once were their refuge

turn away.

Now there is no dark

dark enough for their silver tails,

scatter of color

(like coins massively

piling in the lap of a miser)

that was, in the day, their pride.

How hugely here we belong.

This is their song

in the silting

drift of the reef.

They have never seen the moon

nor the black scut of night, stars

spread like plankton

in their beastly infinities.

Copyright Credit: Ron de Maris, "“A Cave of Angelfish Huddle Against the Moon”" from (: , )

Source: Poetry (November 2003)