New

You’ve heard?—incredible! A second moon!
How was it discovered, then? No one?

No … No … I’ve not seen it, either. “Zither-
silver,” whatever that means. The azimuth

is indeterminate, whatever that means.
Why can’t they speak English? What use in a moon

you can’t court by? What are “receptor sites”?
They mentioned the blood’s love for carbon monoxide,

by way of example. They say the problem isn’t
optical, exactly. The moon’s unrisen

quality is artifactual
of structures in the ancient brain: one jewel

occupies the setting, so to speak;
the nerves won’t crimp around another. What keeps

it there? Why can’t we blink the old white cinder,
then, surrender

to the new? To see a moon not “new,” but new?
I’m asking me, I’m not asking you.

Richard Kenney teaches at the University of Washington’s marine laboratories in Friday Harbor.

Topics: Poetry

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