Wednesday, June 22, 2011

returns



Around 130 people watched at the Sydney Observatory, with one woman dressed as a vampire. “There was (also) a child dressed very elegantly as if she was from another century, and a little boy dressed up as a red superhuman,” Sydney Observatory manager Toner Stevenson told reporters.
—Lunar eclipse turns moon blood red, Philippine Daily Inquirer (16 June 2011)


The longest lunar eclipse
since the last decade proves
we have not seen all things yet,
more so with our patient satellite
now waxing and dressing
the shade of too much
ripeness.

It prompts a flood of prophecies next,
and I fear not the stories
of vampiric newborn creatures
nor the peeling of skin in some hut,
but for that boy on a hill
towered by men, elbowing, eager
to witness the event before dawn.

There is so much around us
yet we could only grasp so little,
and I hear the child cry.
I guess this is the most basic sound
of misery, one that could find its way
to all ears. Except for this moment:
This moon is in pain. This is pain.

The crowd returns to their routines;
perhaps a hundred minute is enough
to bear such lurid beauty.
When the weeping closes to a hush,
I search for the boy
only to find a membrane of light
staining the field of bermuda.


[image lifted from this site]

5 comments:

Tobey said...

I like the ending. I just dont get the pain part. lol.

have you seen the eclipse? it was the most beautiful thing! we should all watch the eclipse together this december :D

Bullfrog said...

Sayang, di ko nakita yun, nakalimutan ko eh. Sa news ko nalang napanood. Erm, as for the pain, the first comes from the moon’s representation being red, pregnant and giving birth to awe and speculations, and then there's the reiteration defining those very two things, the agony of our inability to understand them, which sometimes include the cry of a child(?)

And then, of course, there’s you own interpretation. :D

tin@marikina said...

Like!!! Thanks for posting link on FB!

the tilde construct said...

Liked the pain part, jords. ~arbn

Bullfrog said...

@Tin: No problemo, Tin. Soon, I shall revise "Doorknobs." :)

@Arbeen: Oi! You're here! Thanks, thanks.