If you live to be very old, you may see twelve hundred full moons. Some come in winter and you trudge out into the deep snow to stand beneath their glow. Others come to you in the city and you take an elevator up to the roof of the highest building and set out a couple of folding chairs to watch it glide across the sky. Or the moon finds you along a foreign shore and you paddle out in some dingy and scoop its reflection from the waters and drink it down. The moons of your old age are the most potent but seem few and far between. They make their way into your marrow and teach it how to hum. When your final moon arrives, it’s as if youth has come back to you. Though instead of flaunting its yellow hat, now it’s dressed in black.
~ David Shumate, “An Inventory of Moons” from Kimonos in the Closet
Notes:
- Photo: npr.org – Look Up — The Moon Is Going To Be Amazing This Weekend. A full moon rises behind Lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center in September in New York City. Photo by Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
- Poem: Thank you Whiskey River