THE WINGED MOON
AARON LELITO
Weight of the Vine
My hillsides are no longer suitable,
no longer able to prove their fruit.
It takes many seasons to find
subtle climate creases
somewhere just northward, southward
and they step into sight
only when pensive hands tire.
My larval stages were noted
as particularly advantageous,
but all the enchantment
was aslant and lavished
upon the itching desire
to see the world as it is.
A moth-like leaf
is my mise en abyme,
presupposing the debt
through which big ideas
sift the stones and clay,
the loam and marl
loosely depositing them
with enough open air
to take hold of the rain.
Aaron Lelito is a writer and editor from Buffalo, NY. His micro-chapbook Secret Meetings was published by Ghost City Press in 2025, and he self-released a collaborative notebook/art collection titled If We: Connections Through Creative Process in 2024. His poetry collection, The Half Turn, was published in 2023. His work has also appeared in Tiny Spoon, Door Is A Jar, and Stonecoast Review. He is Editor in Chief of Wild Roof Journal.