A fruit no tree could bear
is brilliantly placed there:

The half-moon’s half the height
of a pear tree. Tonight,

it will illuminate
an illusory state:

another world that can
grow glowing fruit. Once, when

your smile glowed like tonight’s
half-moon, large, lambent lights

from those fantastic trees
filled my fond reveries.

Then, not so long ago,
you smiled and whispered, “No.”

Herb Wahlsteen earned a B.A. in English from CA. St. U., Fullerton, and an M. A. in English from Columbia U. He then worked many years as a high school teacher in New York City Public Schools. He was a finalist in the Yale Series of Younger Poets contest (1989, Adam and Eve in the 20th Century, James Merrill, judge), placed 3rd in the Writer’s Digest 77th Annual Writing Competition: Rhyming Category, and has had poems published widely.