Happy 2011

MOON

You smile like the Cheshire Cat at mid-globe mortals,

Fooling, teasing, mimicking our lunacy.

You disappear for nights at a time,

In the shadows, behind the clouds, under the horizon;

Then you mock us moonfaced romantics

With just a thumb smudge on a clear day.

 

Ah, but when you peer over the ocean in full bright gold,

Casting your shimmering net across the water,

We watch you rise in yellow and preside in silver

Over the seascape you have painted with luminescent ink.

 

Moonglow.

 

If nights were always bathed in radiant indigo

We could dance in the courtyard under your spell

And pick our way to the beach at midnight.

On black nights caution reigns, lest we stumble or get lost,

Your elusive face as baffling as your dark side.

 

Perhaps you’ll give us a sliver of silver on the inland side?

Wynken, Blynken and Nod’s boat sailing across the ocean of sky?

Fleeting glances between clouds and buildings,

Phasing in and out?

 

We used to catch such glimpses of Mount Fuji in Japan,

Driving nearby or riding the bullet train past.

Before it vanished - just as suddenly - behind structures and passing landscape,

We were awed by its stunning, breathing solidity

Reaching out to us so palpably.

 

Constant.

 

You astound us, too, and take our breath away,

But your silent revolution counters our longing with caprice;

As you pull and push and play your Blind Man’s Bluff,

We notice that sometimes the beach is wide

And sometimes there’s no beach at all.

                                                 -SN

Wishing you a golden year,

Sandy, Newton, Elise and Jake

Natal, RN, Brazil