Trapped

High in the weir
of a tree’s bare
branches
the half-moon flops
like a trapped herring
betrayed by the beautiful tide
that carried it here.
It struggles to work free
breathing harder
with every smack
of its bright body
against the shallows
and I can’t remember the last time
I was full
of light
either.

Jean Monahan is the author of the poetry books Hands, Believe It or Not, and Mauled Illusionist, the first of which received the Anhinga Press Prize.