Poetry Month 2023 Post #18: “1:17am”

April is #NationalPoetryMonth” and I am posting a Poem-A-Day.  I wrote this poem this past February in the middle of the night after some time with the moon.

1:17am 

I will never know what woke me up
And led me down the steps
into the nighttime glow
of a just waning moon
and the ethereal circle
of her perfect round bow
painting the sky with some
truth about me, about us
that I sleep to, at turns
lie awake with, brooding
wondering why.
I would never have seen
her round symmetry written
around the vapor of her
there, here watching over
my sleep, my unrest, my sorrow
my lonely mournful homemaking,
homecoming. I would have
missed the wonder that
sang me my childhood among
trees and honeysuckle, impatiens
and marigolds planted along
the cement path in my
backyard. The haven of havens,
the heart of my becoming.
Where did home go, when did
she come and quietly settle
over the whole wide world?
When did she stop being
an aspiration, an ache in
my soul? When did she
whisper, rest daughter, rest
from the fever of tomorrow
and trust a world without
promises, accept a world lost
and found.