Deborah Leipziger
Dear Moon
If I could untether your lunar sentence,
your alphabet, what would you say?
Am I the only one listening to your lunar cadence,
awaiting your language of light?
When I was little, I thought you were God
watching over my breath, my silver sleep.
Illuminate the tunnels where the captives are hidden.
Do not forget our babies in incubators, struggling to breathe.
Help us to encode your light, your phases
to create a cuneiform of sky, hieroglyph of light.
Guide the warblers, thrushes, and buntings,
all night’s migrants, crossing the inky dark.
Teach us the art of transformation
revealing but also protecting.
How will I know if you receive my letter
in light time, woven across the sky?
Deborah Leipziger is an author, poet, and advisor on sustainability. Born in Brazil, Deborah’s poems have been published in ten countries in such magazines as Salamander, Revista Cardenal, and Inkwell. Her poetry collection Story & Bone was published by Lily Poetry Review Books. She is the author of several books on human rights and sustainability. Deborah is currently working on a Lexicon of Change, which shares the vocabulary we need for social and environmental transformation.