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Attention! Some of this material is not in the public domain.

It is illegal to copy and distribute copyright-protected material without permission. It is also illegal to reprint copyright texts or translations without the name of the author or translator.

Note: You must use the copyright symbol © when you reprint copyright-protected material.

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© by Kate Gale

Crater light
Language: English 
The man drinking whiskey sours tells me about his divorce. 
The problem was his wife, apparently. She would not
lie still. Any movement, any distraction caused malfunction.
She knew this. She was warned. Yet she moved arms, ears, toes.

Stay still, he said. His wife underneath.
Said it louder. She froze. The light changed.
Moonlight, shadow. I can’t focus, he said.
She opened her eyes. Can I watch?

Better not, he said. Nothing’s going to happen.
Stay still. She knew he was right by the way
the moon’s craters seized the light and reflected it back
to earth through the window. Unable to create light of their own.

Some receptors create. She was sure of this. She stayed still,
but he was right, nothing happened. What he tells me?
She was warned. He buys me a drink. Hopes my mind will change.
But my mind is with his wife in bed watching the moon’s craters.

Text Authorship:

  • by Kate Gale , "Crater light", appears in Echo Light, Red Mountain Press, first published 2014, copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Mark Abel (b. 1948), "Crater light" [voice and piano], from The Palm Trees are Restless. Five Poems of Kate Gale, no. 3, Oceangoing Music (ASCAP) [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: Mark Abel

This text was added to the website: 2016-04-19
Line count: 16
Word count: 155

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