By The Persuasion of Moonlight

By the persuasion of moonlight dead lilies are reborn

Etched raven-black on canvas that is blue and gold at morn

And by a faint falsetto of an almost setting breeze

The heart and mind by day confined sets sail on phantom seas

The hour that flung wide the skies like freeways beckoning

Succumbs to the insistent rise and falling way of things

Time’s ball-room floor is littered with the aftermath of day

Where guests save for a few forlorn, have gone their merry way

By the persuasion of moonlight romantic stragglers brave

This other world of black and white and echo-wielding wave

Those fingers that ran lightly over summer-golden grain

Close now and hold more tightly to thought’s intimate refrain

The texture of a night wrapped in the silk of opaque mist

Slides soft across longing and loss to love and life half-kissed

By the persuasion of moonlight and what has come to pass

Of have-and-holds; moonlight unfolds a polished looking glass

© Janet Martin