-- The Miracle of Two Moons --

­­John Herlihy

When I went to bed that night

The full moon was already halfway

Up the staircase of darkness

In a night sky bespeckled with stars

Its pale light shone unexpectedly bright

Its borrowed light fell down upon the earth

Spilling across my open window

Its rays like a silver sword in the darkness

Streaking across the bed into my eyes

This will never do, I thought

Feeling uncomfortable, I closed the curtains

Good heavens, the light of the full moon

Has the power to create tidal surges

What could it do to me with its magic spell

In moon shadow, I entered slumber of dreamland

When I went to bed the next night

I felt that something was missing

Something wrong that had no explanation

Indeed, I gazed out the open window

Expecting the eye of the nearly full moon

To be glancing down upon me leeringly

From the far distance of the night sky

You can imagine my shock and distress

When I saw nothing of the kind

As if the eye of the moon had closed

In protest to my actions of the night before

When I closed my bedroom curtains

Against the invasion of eerie, mythical light

No tidal surges, no magical spell

Cast upon the waters of my soul

When I went to bed the night after that

The now waning moon had faithfully returned

Diminished, with night shadows at one edge

Grateful for its return after disappearing the night before

With eeriness at bay, wrapped in its magic spell

I had no desire to close the curtains on this night

Let me bask in the moon’s glorious light

Night’s lantern to show me the way into slumber

But what is this? For I now saw a second moon

Fuller than full and slipping over the sill of my window

Nearer than near, bigger than big against the other moon

Dreamland never felt so wondrous in this mystical light

The moonlight fully illuminated my bedroom in its glow

Shooting stars as fireworks in celebration of this event

One in a lifetime, never again told, the story of a miracle

On the following night and all the other nights thereafter

As long as the moon was framed by that window

The sight of the single, solitary moon

Shining as bright as a golden coin

Night’s regal crown waxing and waning

Lay its tender glow down upon me

Not with an eerie feeling as first aroused

Nor the queasy feeling that no moon had stirred

No, its tender eye gazed down with benevolence

Creating tidal feelings that surged within me

First lifting me up and setting me back down

Whenever I rose up too high in the heavens

A harvest moon with soft glow, mystery, longing

Shone with a contentment that entered my soul

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Saturday 9 October 2021