by Karen Shepherd
Give the traveler bright moonlight but give the thief darkness.
Mtembezi mpe mwezi, mpe kiza mwizi.
– Swahili Proverb
To thieves, give darkness. Strip the sky of stars,
obstruct the paths with webs of maple roots.
Hang thorny vines from broken limbs to creak
in winds. Allow no safeguards in this night.
Detect the hurried clamber, running far
with our character hidden in their boots.
See how the eagles wake and hear them shriek–
some things will not be lost without a fight.
The landscape now itself creates the spars
so blindly let them scramble off the chutes.
Then note the others here who came to seek
how we together can improve our plights.
As we huddle here, standing at a peak,
let’s bless the travelers with bright moonlight.
Karen Shepherd lives in the Pacific Northwest where she enjoys walking in forests and listening to the rain. Her poetry and short fiction have been published in various online and print journals including most recently Ecletica Magazine, Cirque Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, Songs of Eretz, Plainsong, Constellate Literary Journal, and Riddled With Arrows. Follow her at https://twitter.com/karkarneenee