Daytime Moon
by Margaret McGowan
"I will look for you in every lifetime and love you there." —Kamand Kojouri
You came back
as a brown recluse
spider, wove
a web of wind
around my heart,
swung yourself
across the threshold
just to say goodbye,
the voyage of a ghost
who knew one world
was gone. A soldier
you never met played
Taps at your headstone,
the daytime moon
hung low in the sky.
Freshly plowed dirt
covered your grave
like a Texas Star Quilt.
Most saluted, their tender
gestures joined with silent tears,
the engraved letters
of your name
still visible
in the starlight.
You came back
as a brown recluse
spider, wove
a web of wind
around my heart,
swung yourself
across the threshold
just to say goodbye,
the voyage of a ghost
who knew one world
was gone. A soldier
you never met played
Taps at your headstone,
the daytime moon
hung low in the sky.
Freshly plowed dirt
covered your grave
like a Texas Star Quilt.
Most saluted, their tender
gestures joined with silent tears,
the engraved letters
of your name
still visible
in the starlight.
Margaret McGowan is the author of Ancestors and Other Poems (2021). She was a finalist in the 2022 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Contest and received an honorable mention in the HVWG Poetry Contest 2019. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in QU, Hobart, MoonPark Review, and elsewhere.