COURTYARD

How rich the penniless moonlight

spills over the courtyard

where a child grows unseen.

Grandma still alive, swallows’ beaks

bearing earth to nests.

Memory lights its fireflies.

My first lost tooth

chaws the mossy past.

Time revives this courtyard,

the dog’s yip soft, the well cradling its stars.

Tendrils of these grapevines

twine their joy in dreams.