While the moon watcher stands
out on the porch in her towel
and stares at the almost full moon,
the practical one starts to fuss
about how she’ll catch cold with wet hair,
and the list maker is already thinking
of all the things to be done
when she gets back inside,
“Like go check on your kids
to be sure they’re asleep,” says the mother,
and that’s when the laid-back one says,
“Oh relax, they’re fine, drink some wine,”
and the optimist notes what a sparkling
night it is, how the snow in the field
has never, ever been so luminous,
and the pleaser agrees with her
and says, “Never, ever so luminous,
you’re so right, oh it’s beautiful out here,”
at which the budding wise ass says,
“You’ve seen one moon, you’ve seen ’em all,”
and moon watcher almost sticks out her tongue,
but that is not like her, not like her at all,
and she marvels at the impulse, how it seemed
to rise out of nowhere, just like that gorgeous
enormous shining orb. “Oh yes,” says the scientist,
“Did you know that the moon’s surface
has exceptionally low albedo, giving it a reflectance
only slightly brighter than that of worn asphalt,”
and that’s when the reporter jumps in and begins
to take notes. And the little girl says, “There’s a bunny
in there, do you see it, do you see it tilting on its side,”
and the lover, feeling lonely, wishes she had someone
with her to watch the shining moon as it slides
all the way across the visible sky, somehow
never noticing all that company she’s keeping
on this luminous, cold night.
That’s wonderful, and full of wonder. Sybil would be proud with all those selves bound into such a small package. The wise ass made me smile, probably because that one speaks inside of me too often. Nice closing too.
You do have the wise ass, and such a wise one!
From: “comment-reply@wordpress.com” Reply-To: Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2015 at 6:57 PM To: Rosemerry Trommer Subject: [A Hundred Falling Veils] Comment: “And Meanwhile There’s Something Simply There”
WordPress.com
We have met those watching the moon and we are they. “Very well then, I contain multitudes.”
And, oh, the ouch in that closing stanza, the wishing for something and not seeing it right very there. Ouch. I am that multitude, too.
I contain mulitutudes that is the perfect epigraph for this poem, thank you! r
From: “comment-reply@wordpress.com” Reply-To: Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2015 at 8:32 PM To: Rosemerry Trommer Subject: [A Hundred Falling Veils] Comment: “And Meanwhile There’s Something Simply There”
WordPress.com