A [rchitect] by Tommy Archuleta

from My Travel Dream Dictionary

I’m one fuckit away from giving up looking for you  
 
Not you the moon but you the distance between moon and meaning
 
Which is to say never is anyone truly alone
 
And the more I look for you the more the moon darkens
 
Not true   	I never said night resembles the last hour of life
           	 
Love and loss are tricks of light played on us by the Architect says father
 
If by Architect he means pain then yeah 	ok   
 
Now the moon is writing a poem
 
It’s about some poet most poets have never heard of
 
And something about smoke posing as a human shadow posing a page torn
  	from Dante’s Inferno
 
What gets me is the quote face of one’s lost love unquote
 
So I keep on staring
 
Now the moon is leading our horses to water
 
The herd still hours away from settling

**Tommy Archuleta** is a mental health counselor and substance abuse counselor for the New Mexico Corrections Department. Most recently his work has appeared in the *New England Review,* *Laurel Review, Lily Poetry Review, The Cortland Review, Guesthouse*, and the *Poem-a-Day* series sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. His full-length, debut collection of poems entitled, Susto, is slated for release March 2023 through the Center for Literary Publishing as a Mountain/West Poetry Series title. He lives and writes on the Cochiti Reservation.

Shibazrule, aka Lisa D. Chavez, is a poet based in New Mexico. Her poetry books include Destruction Bay (West End Press) and In An Angry Season. (University of Arizona Press). She also writes memoir and fiction, and teaches in the MFA program at the University of New Mexico. She’s delighted to have the opportunity to be Guest Editor here at The Coop for the month of August.