It’s a goodbye….to see the shadows of this Earth eat up the moon tonight
Early morning is so still and calm, the darkness of the water in the creek a mirror
To the orb above, awaiting her cloak.
Moon sighs down at us and smiles.
The creek burbles, carrying on its life
Little wriggling beings oblivious to the stars.
Or perhaps not….as we all are swayed by them here on the dirt, aren’t they more so
In the gravity-defying flowing wet?
Stumbling in the ever growing darkness I pull out my little cube of a camera and snap.
Snap.
Knowing the whole time there is nothing I can do to make the lens capture
What my eyes and soul are capturing under these stars tonight.
Clouds, the ruin of the night,
Grow and fade in the light of the Moon,
Who pulls the shadow of matriarch Earth over her slowly, like a drowsy woman,
Resting finally after an impossible day of toil, work, and life.
The clouds part for a moment and I spy
Orion, aiming his bow at the fading Moon.
I continue to snap, snap, adjusting the buttons of the camera, trying to capture just
A sliver, a moment, of what I feel, this Eclipse.
Last one viewed like we have tonight
Could have been in the court of Elizabeth the First, every one of the courtiers,
Dressed in their finest, pausing in awe after their celebrations of the Equinox,
Lifting their eyes to view and adore this
Moon, the very one I see tonight.
Their eyes gazed as mine do, their eyes fixed with wonder at a sight they’d never see again.
And here I am, four hundred years later, living.
Breathing in this cool December breeze,
Wishing the clouds away from Her….
And there she goes, amid my wanderings, my endeavors to capture her on film,
The clouds, though they are thin and travel quickly, blanket the light of the last sliver
Yet, there, There! A bit of a Cheshire cat smile,
The Moon grins down at me,
Happy to have her warm shadow-blanket almost covering, ready to awaken again
As her toes become light.
A Burd in Flight 