Mercury and Moonlight

In this collection, James Thomas Fletcher writes about lost letters and lost love, the hazards of living in a foreign land, the nature of silence, and the poetic movement of Tai Chi. Mercury & Moonlight is filled with emotional candor and lyrical beauty. Explore these short samples for a glimpse inside..

THE PLUTOCRAT
Stranded in an after-hours bar
Cubby holes lined with bookshelves
And no way home, I pick up
My first Booth Tarkington and begin.
With each read
This book embeds itself into me.

PASSING CLOUDS
Water flows over stones
into mist floating above mountains.
Your hands become clouds,
softly they sway
before you. Circles
swirl on the periphery
as you turn, moving rainbows aside.
In silky twilight you dance
with the rising moon.
Steel moonbeams guard your flank.

LEAP OF FAITH
A man I never met comes to my casita.
I give him a stack of hundred-dollar bills
and he leaves without counting them.
No receipts on either side.

I've been in Panama less than a week.
At the corner I buy oatmeal-
milk and corn-milk. I find cans of tuna
filled with vegetables.

The reality of this casita fails
to match its photos on the internet.
My wife cries the first night.
What have we done? echoes in our minds.

Today the man returns with my new car
and all the Panamanian paperwork
and insurance. A car with four glove
boxes in the dash. One heated and cooled.

This car isn't sold in the States.
This life isn't found in the States.
Check your expectations at the door and leap
into a new culture.

Planet Earth exists beyond the borders
of America. Cookie-cutter houses and lives
are all you've known. For once, throw your soul
around the way you do your money.