By Moonlight

Come to bed the moon is flying,
The book is read, the dishes ready,
Neatly in the rack for drying.

Come and think about tomorrow
When you will be a holier woman
Than Heloise, and pure in furrow.

Come and lie and in the lying
Come and if you cannot promise
Come and share the body's striving.

In the middle of my dreaming
Lie and say you've come to touch me.
Speak only truth, feel only feeling.

Come and love me through the darkness
Of a night the moon's forsaken
While wolves chase deer into the corners.

Truth is uttered without speaking.
"Lie still," the gods command in whispers--
Tonight there is no room for sleeping.

Come and taste the human stirring
While the dead book floorward topples
And souls unspun rejoice in living.

There, in the lying and the forfeit,
In the shudder and the darkness
A truer light than any prophet.