Field Goal, Moonlight, Men Walking to Work

Jim Moore

Last night our team won in the final three seconds.

We beat our archrivals.

This morning at 6:10 a.m. the moon rides high

over the parking lot. Clearly,

this isn't a poem at all. It is just a title:

FIELD GOAL, MOONLIGHT, MEN WALKING TO WORK.

I live in this world and no other. It is sad

how people in my country huddle together

for comfort. But also beautiful in the way anything necessary

is also beautiful. It is late November, a little light

beginning to gather in my sky.

I love my darkness and my greed

for light. I often regret

not having had a calm and loving childhood.

Though in that life I might not have needed the moon

the way I do now. Who then would have written the poem,

FIELD GOAL, MOONLIGHT, MEN WALKING TO WORK?

Jim Moore is a poet whose most recent book is Prognosis. He lives a block away from the Vikings stadium in Minneapolis.
Originally published:
November 8, 2023

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