Just before the dark moon, <br />A slender sliver of light - <br />Like a piece of onion skin - <br />Rises into the sky near sunrise. <br />The next lunar phase, <br />Like a gaping empty mouth <br />Of a Black Hole, <br />Swallows that crumb and starts over, <br />Adding layer upon layer of meaning each night <br />Until a globose onion gleaming <br />Inside its translucent sheath <br />Hangs like a Japanese lantern <br />Shining through its parchment, <br />Voluminous as the Book of Life - <br />My deeds, both good and bad, <br />Are scribed on every page. <br />Does the ink bleed through <br />So that today's transgressions <br />Leak into tomorrow <br />Staining it with lesser motives, <br />Obliterating the light within? <br />As a dark growth of black mold <br />pollutes the purer inner skin of childhood, <br />I begin to peel this moon <br />And tears flow freely <br />As I cut out the spoiled patches of sin - <br />The offensive slime that feeds on the sweetness - <br />And soon I have cut all but a thin crust, <br />That slender sliver <br />just before the new moon.<br /><br />Lillian Susan Thomas<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-slender-sliver-of-light/
