Two AM Half-Moon

a two AM half-moon glared
bright as full
dusting the dulled obsidian
with the crushed bones
of the day’s wither

I’d been reading poetry– all evening
into the deep of night’s squalor
one poem, after another, and another
many of the writers, greatly acclaimed

“How can you do that for so long?”

“I’m looking for something.”

“Anything..” I drifted

and I kept reading
the words, slurring, blurring
as each drunken hero fell, stumbling
into dismissal’s shadowy obscurity
I kept reading
until all the heroes I’d sought
some, once admired
aye, nearly worshiped
had perished
as had the day
fallen

I’d thought I’d known
loneliness
before this
tho I hadn’t–
I’d only known
its distant moans

and I closed my eyes
offering breathless thin-whisper goodbyes
cast into the half-moon’s dusty sky
craving a hastened arrival
wishing only
slumber’s blissful forgetfulness
until a new day’s dawn