when summer shines
more than wheat glitters
as the sun dazzles it ripe
with wind bending
water glitters into iridescence
as birds skim across its luster
leaves glitter green into a sheen
as they sigh
over sleeping things
all is ripe
Life comes to every harvest
shimmering
the texas star
cooperia pedunculata
(also known as the hill country rain lily)
i
after
spring/early summer rain
it
rises blooms
small moon white
on a slender green stalk
along the highway
a star
ii
a barbed-wire fence
protects a field
where a sky of stars
fell the night before
and stayed
the moon: who is she, really
i
the setting sun whispered the latest rumor
your beloved the moon
woos with her shinning flesh
the white tipped tides
i wept . . .
another she the ocean a body
the moon also loves?
ii
could the moon be a twin
who sheds her skin and blood
like mine
as she slowly counts one to twenty-eight
iii
perhaps the moon
is an old woman who empties her purse . . .
as she counts her coins
she measures out her change
o
so carefully
for each dark night
Sister Lou Ella Hickman
Sister Lou Ella has a master’s in theology from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio and is a former teacher and librarian. She is a certified spiritual director as well as a poet and writer. Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines and four anthologies.