Night Sky, March 23, 1997

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for Angelica


Sitting up on the roof with you on the night of the magic sky
The old reiterated queries, will you perish? will you fade?
Themselves for a moment fade and perish

The moon passes through the penumbra but only partly through
The umbra before emerging
And during this time it appears bluish or greyish brown
Then later a dull coppery orange glowing inside its own aura

Ancient disc, unspent coin
Rays of your light just grazing the rim of our blue globe
Slow down as they pass through these dense atmospheres
Undergo refraction and bent into the shadow cone
Fall upon the eclipsed moon to lend it
This eerie coppery glow against the deep
Blue black of the night – literally unearthly
Like Marvell’s orange lamp in a green night

And now it’s sunset on the moon
Some places shading into yellow
Some into a dull red touching everything with a luminous aura or halo
And every feature stands out in relief
Like seeing you accidentally naked today
The blond lunar globe of your belly

A dull red disc bathed in glow
Set like a jewel in the sky full of stars
Even as disappearing behind the large evergreen
To the Pacific (ocean) edge of the roof rushes across the night
The fuzzy starlike brushstroke in time of the comet Hale-Bopp

Lunar eclipse: photo by Garry, 2007
Lunar eclipse, viewed from Montreal: photo by abdallahh, 2008
Lunar eclipse during totality, viewed fom Millersville, Pa.: photo by Dtbohrer, 2008
Comet Hale-Bopp, over Zabriskie Point, Death Valley: photo by Mkfairdpm, 1997