Luna Claire
By Sandor DeGrazia
She fled so fast
Into the night
Her feet like wings
In search of flight
An ardent call
A fierce behest
Beat hard and fast
Beneath her chest
With breathless strides
She breached the wood
The only place
She understood
Left abandoned
As a child
Her heart was sad
Her nature, wild
Discarded one
October eve
Under full moon
Stashed in a tree
Wrapped in leaves
Upon a bough
Silent, still
Alive somehow
Taken in
By childless pair
Given the name
Of Luna Claire
After the moon
On found night’s rise
Her name reflected
In her eyes
A strange young girl
In search of stealth
She rarely spoke
Kept to herself
When others asked
“What do you think?”
Miss Luna Claire
Would simply blink
Lonely
Labeled as a freak
She failed to find
A friend to keep
The sky, the air
The woods at night
Deep cravings
Luna could not fight
So out of place
She did her best
But cruel’s the world
That doth protest
Ceaseless sorrow
Strident pain
Suffering
Her dark refrain
The world of man
Had not been kind
To Luna Claire
So out of rhyme
Her looks were odd
Posture refined
Her nose pronounced
And aquiline
Flat face, set wide
Hair speckled brown
Ne’er did she wear
A smile or frown
Still as stone
Stoic and wise
Expressionless
But for those eyes
Like pools of gold
Spun from the sun
Cast to the moon
Night magic’s drum
Just seventeen
And demonized
A victim of
Eristic eyes
And so, she ran
To break the chain
The human curse
Her great distain
Deep in the wood
She climbed a tree
To summon what
She could not see
Upon the wind
She set a wish
And soon the sky
Began to switch
Then parting clouds
Unveiled the blaze
Of Hunter’s Moon
Through mystic haze
The cosmic sphere
Alive with power
Bathed Luna in
A scarlet shower
Mesmerized
By selcouth scene
Captured quick
In moonbeam’s gleam
Then swirled the wind
As spell was spun
Under the dark night’s
Crimson sun
Gold eyes affixed
On blood-red moon
Night magic swirled
Sky sang a rune
Luna’s soul
Escaped her skin
Raced through the night
And back again
And once returned
By swift cantrip
The deed was done
A full eclipse
Upon the ground
Beneath the tree
Lie Luna’s cold
Lifeless body
And clutched above
On bare bark bough
With huge gold eyes
Was perched an owl
Posturing
With wings spread wide
Into the night
The owl cried
A haunting song
Of life, reformed
A long-lost soul
Renewed, reborn
And left exposed
At trunk of tree
A ghastly sight
For all to see
Miss Luna Claire
Without her eyes
Her smiling face
To terrorize
Two deep dark wells
Where once was gold
Snatched in the night
So, story goes
A legend formed
Of wicked beast
Wandering the wood
In search of feast
Under the dark
October skies
Beware the beast
Or lose your eyes
But legend’s tale
Is false, you see
The truth
Dispels the mystery
A misplaced soul
By ancient hex
Made bird a girl
Strigiform and vexed
But enigmatic
Magic be
That rules the earth
And sky and sea
Seventeen years
Had come and gone
Till time drew nigh
To right the wrong
Miss Luna Claire
Beseeched the moon
And syzygy
Bequeathed her boon
‘twas full and new
And blood and blue
And that night’s moon
Was super too
A repeat of
That fated night
When spell-snatched soul
Clipped Luna’s flight
An evil witch
With grudge held tight
Switched bird to girl
In dark of night
Now, spell reversed
And soul set right
The owl took wing
And then, alight
On crooked branch
Of twisted tree
O’er witch’s house
Whom banished she
To human form
That now lie dead
Soul, still alive
In night bird’s head
And when the witch
Emerged from dwell
Miss Luna Claire
Unleased her hell
Seventeen years
Of torture spent
Turned to revenge
By revenant
With fury fierce
And hooked beak barbed
Miss Luna Claire
Went fast and hard
An ambushed launched
And vengeance swift
Upon the head
Of witch that switched
Thrashing arms
And curses flared
A shrill sharp shriek
Then split the air
But no defense
Would efforts spare
The target set
By Luna Claire
The past spell cast
Was equalized
By bird’s first feast
On witch’s eyes
With hollow sockets
And haunted mind
The witch was left
Beak-birched and blind
And in the sky’s
Nocturnal bloom
The owl, illumed
By clair de lune
Her song rang out
From wood to henge
Miss Luna Claire
Had been avenged
