Moonlight Walk
The moon, a perfect half circle. No other stars visible except Jupiter in the southern sky, and star lights from the curtained houses with shadows moving across a blue-shaded room. What story [happy] | [boring] | [frozen] is going on when the moon is listening? So do you, the lonely walker, listen [without a mask] among the silhouette of trees. The continuous drumming of cicadas, the mooing of a bull- frog, fill the quiet, warm twilight. Ardor, you think [yearn]. There is one body [long ignored] you experience now—whose steps, whose sense of moon touch, whose flow, whose satisfaction of being occupied [noticed] [loved]. On the open road, the walker continues with the moon, and the latest and last lover.
"Moonlight Walk" by Xiaoly Li, featured in West Trestle Review Sept/Oct 2023 issue.