It was dusk at St. Mary's; the last of the light whispered down lawns that sloped to the inlet. You were parking your van with the Chinese horses rampant where you painted them on the hood when, square on the grass in front of us, a peacock fanned in full his courtship feathers of lime, teal, coral, lapis lazuli.
I joked I didn't realize your van resembled a peahen so lusciously. But this is what I've always wished for you: the unexpected blessings of jeweled nature, pure scenes of grace that take the form of flowers bowing before you, or the dance of birds in tribute to one who makes things beautiful.
Miles David Moore is a Washington reporter for Crain Communications, Inc. He is founder and host of the Iota Poetry Reading Series in Arlington, VA, a member of the Board of Directors of The Word Works, Inc., and administrator of The Word Works Washington Prize. He is the author of three books of poetry: The Bears of Paris (The Word Works Capital Collection, 1995); Buddha Isn't Laughing (Argonne Hotel Press, 1999); and Rollercoaster (The Word Works Capital Collection, 2004). With Karren LaLonde Alenier and Hilary Tham, he co-edited Winners: A Retrospective of the Washington Prize, published in 1999 by The Word Works. Fatslug Unbound, a CD of Moore's poetry read by himself and 14 other poets, was realeased in 2000 by Minimus Productions. His review/essays on the poet John Haines have appeared in The Wilderness of Vision (Story Line Press, 1996) and A Gradual Twilight (CavanKerry Press, 2003).
