Justin Vicari

MOTH

He spans a crack in the ceiling's
plaster, crawling sideways
in his sleep.  He is Chinese
watered silk, spotted with dye
of India ink.
He loves my wan electric lamp;
trapped between these walls,
it must shine stronger than what's outside --
although they've got the dynamos,
refineries, socket plugs
the size of monuments.
He dreams of eclipsed dynasties
pale beyond the mountainous eons.
Little gray moon of September,
cut off from all the family tables.

Justin Vicari is the recipient of the 2005 Third Coast Poetry Prize and the 2005 New Millennium Writings Poetry Prize, and the author of a fiction chapbook, In a Garden of Eden (Plan B Press, 2005). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Disquieting Muses Quarterly, Eclipse, Rhino, Gin Bender, Slant, Spillway, Memorious, BlazeVOX, Senses of Cinema, Red Booth Review, Poetry Motel, Film Quarterly, and other reviews.