And Yet the Moon

by helen laurence

following national election, November 14, 2016: ‘supermoon’
(closest since January 26,1948)

We wander half-jangled:
upheaval, avenues of gloom
after hopes of tipping into lamplit ease...shock
insistent on rising like the rows of spikes
in a parking lot, warning “Do Not Back Up,”
but now furtively switched,

facing the wrong way to deflate
the tires of our vehicles powered by cultural
sunlight and steam, and so we are,
for a time, unable to move

And then the moon:
her elliptical path and always
her plump influence rising
to remind us of orbit, harmony,
reflection

near full, she lights high clouds
like a skyscape of snowy dunes
a frozen delight... moonlit
trickery so convincing
we must again and again re-orient
ourselves against deception:

that here where we stand is earth;
and there where we gaze is firmament:
a puffy quilt of fine moisture,
neither formed by tussocks
of winter meadow nor clothed in snow

And yet the moon, silent,
speaks.
And none can silence her
nor any halt her rising
not even if rain-obscured




(c) 2017 Helen Laurence