Dark of the Moon by Susan Terris Hear It Read By The Author In the garden, girl in a white gown barefoots among fireflies and night-moths. Under crooks of Douglas fir, she hears an owl ruff his feathers and mourning doves refold their wings. The earth is cooling, shrinking, drying. Rotted tomatoes, red-black sacs, droop from stems.  A pumpkin yellows on its spined umbilical, and marigold dust warps skin inside her nose. Strung tree to tree, paper lanterns ghost the air. As she stretches toward their warmth, shadows stir, chords shiver her ears. Apparitions vapor from the soil and wind around her.  She reaches out.  "Dance," she commands them, "you must dance." Responsive, they sheer toward music and lantern light.  She watches them beckon.  Then she joins in, eager to mimic their ease.  Feet skip over dirt, leaf, stone.  Her enchanters are shape and flame yet faceless. Bats flare above her head.  A possum scrabbles claws on bark.  Though she is flushed, shades are pale. White grays, and she sees through their cornstalk bones.  To keep them close, she cries, "Sing, you must sing," yet even as her voice rises, music thins to threads.  An echo of melody and image lap, fusing now and soon.  Shades retreat, lanterns dim until she is left alone where night is onyx cold, and nothing quickens below the fir. Her legs are shrouded by her gown.  Breast buds tender, joints and sinews liquid.  Footprints craze mud beneath her feet.  To ward off chill, she reaches out, lets a firefly pink the soft cup of her hands. Copyright © 1999 Susan Terris All Rights Reserved   Susan Terris lives in San Francisco where she is a writer and a teacher of writing. Her most recent books are Curved Space (La Jolla Poets Press, 1998) and Nell's Quilt (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996). Her many journal publications include: The Antioch Review, The Midwest Quarterly, Painted Bride Quarterly,Southern California Anthology,  Nimrod, and The Southern Poetry Review.   On-line she has been published in: Recursive Angel, The Blue Penny Quarterly, In Vivo, Switched-on Gutenberg, Kudzu, Gaia, Realpoetik, Thunder Sandwich, Ariga:Visions, Zero City.   Also by Susan Terris: Fugitives Life Bytes Living In Curved Space