New Moon

Where've you been? And is it you

I can't make out in the sea-dark sky?

And what is the place of the past?

And who can tell me when it changed, or why?

What took you so long? And now you're back,

I wonder why you went away.

And what did you see, and what did you lack,

For this month of years that you didn't stay?

Round and round, like Penelope,

I've circled my little world of skeins

With whethers and whiles and a flagon of hope

That lingered and sailed with the summer rains.

Stories I've told since we kissed goodbye

Like the wax and wane of your copy and clone

Unravel the knots of nights gone by

Like the ghost of a dream or the slip of a song.

And now you're here! A newborn's eye

Is not so transparent or far from full

As the crescent sea from the silver rim.

Of who I am... and where you've been.