Originally published in the 2015 Texas Poetry Calendar.
The ghost of the moon
Trembles upon the river,
Its pallor cracked and veined
By the oblique shadows of branches—
Ebony and mesquite, grasping at darkness.
Like a lunar fragment
A white form floats in those mangling waters—
A face obscured by spidering hair and giant reed,
A lifeless hand, caught in the thirsty roots
Of brush holly,
Scarlet beans like globules of blood
Afloat in the black.