night wears luminous
scales—I feel its pulses through
invisible nets

time resolves into kinship–
everything opened, laid bare

what has been follows
like a shadow, until it
too is discarded

stitched into shining patterns
ancient and always brand new

A double tanka in honor of August’s Sturgeon Moon for Colleen’s #TankaTuesday words, light and dark, and Frank Tassone’s #HaikiChallenge.  Also called the Red Moon, perhaps the sky will clear enough tonight so I can see it.

As many have noted, the sturgeon is an ancient and endangered species.  I was please to find we have our own Hudson River sturgeons, still hanging on.  Fishing for them was banned in 1996.