Flower Moon

Brilliant, slowly rising
Like a host held aloft to ringing bells
over the dark blue trees
Murmuring and swaying in the breeze
As a Hasid at the Western Wall
A silver orb, though blotched and scarred
Gray and white wounds remember
Danes and Poles and Greeks
Its bays and seas
Dry as potsherds
Or brut champagne
Swirling in a flute
A note dancing in the air
And sparkling
Like shattered glass
Strewn across rain-blackened cobblestones
As moonlight
On the grass

Michael C. Paul is a writer, illustrator, and historian living in Virginia. His work appears in The Lyric, Amethyst Review, and Havik, and is forthcoming in The Sunlight Press and The Orchards Poetry Journal. He is a four-time award winner in the 2026 Poetry Society of Virginia annual contest.