Envoie – a poem by Joel Moskowitz

 Envoie


Go, little poem,  
into the meadow 
among the sunbeams, 
seedlings in moist loam,
sweet jewelweed, and fallen 

branches. Rest in mottled shade,
for you are my failed prayer,
lightweight.

A slug slides over you,
leaving a luminous trail
like a gentle teacher's marginalia.

You feel exposed,
hear thunder, 
wild voices.

If a snake draws near,
praise its cold scales,
the plates on the turtle’s shell,
and the fox treading lightly.

Now you are 
among them. I'm still 
in my house, gazing out the window,
a mild agoraphobic. But I follow

you as the wind lifts 
you towards the riverbank
among the elusive shorebirds 
in the lapping tide.

Joel Moskowitz is an artist who lives in Sudbury, Massachusetts. His poems have appeared​ in The Comstock Review, Ibbetson Street Press, J Journal, Midstream, Naugatuck River Review, The Healing Muse, MuddyRiverPoetryReview.com, BostonPoetryMagazine.com, AmethystMagazine.org and Soul-Lit.com. He is a First Prize winner of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire National Contest.