Tonight the moon

tonight
the moon
is a delicate sliver
reclining
a silver whisper
intricate and clean

the moon is thus
tonight

but we know
from our own watching
that tomorrow night
the moon will grow
although we will see nothing of it

it will gain in substance
it will swell until
it stands bold and round
and pregnant
accepting the human gaze
of every land and
language and face

the moon will not
always be tonight's bare sliver
and this
is our greatest hope

^

Biography

Joseph Ross is a poet who lives and writes in Washington, D.C. He currently directs the Writing Center at Carroll High School and teaches at Montgomery College in Takoma Park, Maryland. His poems have been published in many journals and magazines, including Sojourners, The Other Side, and Word Is Bond. He also had a poem published in a new anthology called DC Poets Against the War, 2004.