CAT UNDER THE MOON

I remember
when I was completely happy,
like a cat under the moon.

But the filtered light of time
is indifferent,
and the same shadows
that give depth to moonlight,
channel sorrow
to a tender soul.

If I didn't have the poetry
of her joy to take hold of my heart,
then the tormenting pain of loss,
which grips like a magnet,
would be unfathomable,
much like a world
never graced with her presence.

Although Florine was anything
but a simple woman,
it was her elegant simplicity
and rare spiritual contentment
that made her complex and beguiling,
like a Zen garden
unaffected by the changing seasons.

Hers was a world of wonderment…
at the exhilarating power
of her thoroughbred
beneath her,
or the serene beauty of a butterfly
or a garden rose.

We all have our moments,
wonderful moments,
but rather than just passively wait
for them to happen,
she created her own,
with gusto, until she breathed
every inch of air.

Her existence not only
gives meaning to my own,
it lasts forever
in all that is beautiful.

-JOHN PISCATELLA