Artemis & the Moon

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Once I kissed her, it was clear I had to stop 
time. Spilling over the precipice of girlhood, 
I knew I would spend my life outrunning 
whatever came next, breath coarse in my throat, 
the trees reaching for me. Branchwhip and berryglow. 
Sheen of eyes in the dark. Animal scent. 
Sweatmusk and furdamp. The night singing to me 
in a new voice, cradling me forever under its velvet. 
Safe and hidden, I could escape the day
when we would no longer be young, 
when her luminous gaze might hold anything
other than adoration. Stay with me, she said, so I did, 
taking her shining white palm in mine, pulling her gently 
across the sky. And I will do it again each evening, 
guiding her over the blueblack, sidestepping stars. 
We’ll stay this way, maiden eternal, firelight catching 
between us as easily as that first kindling. Her fingers
the only thing more solid in my grasp than a bow.