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Owen Bullock

Moons

I don’t know what a wolf moon is, or a gibbous moon. I know a flower moon, when it shimmers like blue rose; a red dust moon glowing as the fried soil of the earth; a grand fan moon, fully unfurled to a great disc, perched like a boulder on the rooftop; a shard moon, that could be bone, fragment of a necklace let fall on a river bed where clanking rocks try to tell you a story; the full slice moon, a hanging meal ready to be scoffed, ragged like hunger and how did it get so big, so in-the-sky; wastrel moon, misted and spectral, dangling in the morning when it should be resting for its job tonight; lantern moon igniting steps, walking home from a late night, shortcut through the mine roads.

2 a.m. full moon
a badger scarpers
for the shade

 

About the writer:
Owen Bullock’s most recent publication is Impression (Beir Bua Press, 2022). His other titles include Uma rocha enorme que anda à roda (A big rock that turns around), translations of his tanka into Portuguese by Francisco Carvalho (Temas Originais, 2021), Summer Haiku (Recent Work Press, 2019), Work & Play (Recent Work Press, 2017), and Semi (Puncher & Wattmann, 2017). He teaches Creative Writing at the University of Canberra. His other interests include juggling, music and chess.

Image: Alone by Jiří Kovařík (1932-1994). Oil on canvas. 97 x91 cm. 1971. By free license.

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