A web of sewer, pipe, and wire connects each house to the others. <br /> <br />In 206 a dog sleeps by the stove where a small gas leak causes him <br />to have visions; visions that are rooted in nothing but gas. <br /> <br />Next door, a man who has decided to buy a car part by part <br />excitedly unpacks a wheel and an ashtray. <br /> <br />He arranges them every which way. It’s really beginning to take <br />shape. <br /> <br />Out the garage window he sees a group of ugly children <br />enter the forest. Their mouths look like coin slots. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />A neighbor plays keyboards in a local cover band. <br />Preparing for an engagement at the high school prom, <br /> <br />they pack their equipment in silence. <br /> <br />Last night they played the Police Academy Ball and <br />all the officers slow-danced with target range silhouettes. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />This year the theme for the prom is the Tetragrammaton. <br /> <br />A yellow Corsair sails through the disco parking lot <br />and swaying palms presage the lot of young libertines. <br /> <br />Inside the car a young lady wears a corsage of bullet-sized rodents. <br />Her date, the handsome cornerback, stretches his talons over the <br />molded steering wheel. <br /> <br />They park and walk into the lush starlit gardens behind the disco <br />just as the band is striking up. <br /> <br />Their keen eyes and ears twitch. The other couples <br />look beautiful tonight. They stroll around listening <br />to the brilliant conversation. The passionate speeches. <br /> <br />Clouds drift across the silverware. There is red larkspur, <br />blue gum, and ivy. A boy kneels before his date. <br /> <br />And the moon, I forgot to mention the moon.<br /><br />David Berman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-moon-102/
