POEM STARTER
Moonshine and Moonlight
Write a poem which centres on these words. How can you pair these similar words with very different meanings in a poem?
A Hymn for the Hollow
moonshine drips from your mouth,
not liquor—no,
just the sweet sting of a name I forgot to forget.
you speak in tongues,
and I drink every lie like it might let me sleep.
you were never gentle,
only soft in the dark.
I mistook that for mercy.
but you burn like Sunday guilt
and leave ash on the pillows.
moonlight was the look in your eyes
when you promised you’d stay.
not light—not grace—
just the ghost of intention.
just the coldest part of the flame.
I keep the curtains closed now.
not to hide the sun,
but because even silver reminds me of skin
I didn’t have the right to touch.
I walk the floorboards barefoot,
catching echoes of your laugh between the cracks.
your absence has a sound.
it hums under my ribs,
a lullaby with no resolve.
I want to scream your name in a cathedral
just to see if God flinches.
just to see if anyone remembers
you existed inside me once,
like a breath I never exhaled.
so I sip the moonshine,
choke on the moonlight,
and beg sleep to come like you used to—
late,
angry,
and full of apologies.
but it never does.
only the ache returns.
only the ache
always
returns.