Kevin Ridgeway

SHOOT THE MOON


That’s what 
he kept whispering
into my ear, drunk in 
the midnight forests of Maine
after a mutual friend 
drove me up 
from Rhode Island
in the thick of Covid, 
underneath a crescent moon.
He was newly married 
to one of my closest friends,
loving life and it’s new possibilities, 
loving me after years away 
from each other.  
but we fell short 
of that crazy old moon:
he got a divorce within a year 
after I let him down on that trip
when I wasn’t the person 
he used to know in the gnarly brush 
of a place where we once had 
youthful strength 
in our memories of each other, 
now we live in distant worlds 
on the earth’s disappointing surface,
bruised and still dreaming of the moon.   

       

Kevin Ridgeway is the author of “Too Young to Know” (Stubborn Mule Press) and “Vacancy” (Alpine Ghost Press), among other titles. His work has appeared in Slipstream, Chiron Review, Nerve Cowboy, Main Street Rag, Cultural Daily, San Pedro River Review, Into the Void, Plainsongs, The Cape Rock, Trailer Park Quarterly and The American Journal of Poetry, among others. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He lives and writes in Long Beach, CA.

   

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