GEALACH

GEALACH
                         —Tá an ghealach lán anocht.
               To Canice Reilly-Santos 1937-5.12.2012


I dreamed someone handed me a bowl of scorpions.
Then the news came, the report wasn't good.
They said my aunt lit up like myriad moons
in the MRI chamber, her body riddled with light.
Super moon of the year, Scorpio moon.
Beltaine's bone fire announcing the birth of summer.
Someone says it's also the Buddha moon.
They say he was born, achieved enlightenment,
and died all during the full May moon.
My aunt's days are numbered in weeks, maybe months.
She is watching the approach of her own death.
For some reason I am remembering
the names of the moon in Irish.
An ghealach, the bright shining one.

5/6/12



(Alas, she got only two weeks notice. She died on Saturday. It was mercifully quick.)