<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">By the Dark of the Moon</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> <i>with thanks to David Ray</i></span><br><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Last night I had a New Moon dream.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Sea otters floated in Monterey Bay,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">puzzled by a variety of books</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">dancing on the shore.</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Puzzled, not by their dancing, but by</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">their blank pages flapping </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">as they pranced and called out,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">“Take us, feed us, we are starving,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">we have no meaning. Index us, </span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Content us, fill us with</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Epigrams, Footnotes, Bibliographies.”</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The otter nearest to me turned and smiled,</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">offered a pen. In the morning</span><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">my bed sheets were covered with poetry.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank God.</span><br><br><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Stork Rein </span></div></body></html>