A Better Moon

I see you better now, shaded in deeper blue.

Hardly needing to carry the find-your-way lamp

down to the river.

Tonight flies a better moon.

Sad water buffalo lie fast near the shallows;

a splash revealing the fly-catching fishes.

Dark Gods silently watching.

Tonight flies a better moon.

I guess you've known lovers here, compliant in passion;

softly laid in the old reed bed, harshly

lit in the noon sun.

Tonight flies a better moon.

Now cloaked in this milky light, new as the virgin dawn,

shrouded sweetly in all kinds of mystery,

you turn, smile and then are gone.

Tonight flies a better moon.