"Chant For The Last Full Moon Before Summer Solstice" by Paul Jones

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