Strawberry-ripe, night-glow.
It's where the day's heat goes.
So wild, so bright, so close—
secrets we need to know.
It's where the day's heat goes
to burn bright as a rose.
Secrets we need to know
that only this moon holds.
To burn bright as a rose
while bats, the dark's own crows,
that only this moon holds,
leap through those small star-holes.
Like bats, the dark's own crows,
we could fly without clothes,
leap through those small star-holes
to rise in ones and twos.
We could fly without clothes—
strawberry-ripe, night-glow,
to rise in ones and twos—
so wild, so bright, so close.
In 2019, a manuscript of Paul Jones’ poems crashed into the moon. In 2021, Jones was inducted into the NC State Computer Science Hall of Fame. His book is Something Wonderful (Redhawk Publishing, 2021). Jones has recently published poems in Tar River Poetry, Hudson Review, North Carolina Literary Review, The Broadkill Review, and in The Best American Erotic Poems: 1800 - Present (Scribner, 2008). http://smalljones.com