Phil Boiarski
1st Place
Under an April Full Moon
“In light, darkness, not taken as darkness. In dark, light, not taken as light.
Light and dark oppose like front and back foot walking.”
-Shitou
The last of dusk, now subsumed in night,
dwells with the pair here in the darkness,
while that enormous April moon,
full & fat, bathes all surfaces in a soft glow.
Subtler still, the cherry blooms,
their momentary show
reflected in shadowy half-light.
The two, one older, both in blossom
pause, as fading eyes mute all starkness
and bring all beings closer to
each other. Time walks here, too
in their forms & in the
two women, their kimonos,
silvered by the shining,
like water in an old well.
