Themes about the moon
have tricked people into blood feuds,
gotten people to sucking at late hours,
kept people up, created legends of howling
people affected by the moon and
shot in the dark by a terrified farmer.
In various parts of the country, all affected
by the moon, affected by its evil light,
people have pursed lips and wondered:
When will it stop its steady stare?
When it goes away, it reappears,
unremittingly.
About the moon grandfathers say:
The moon is a thief, a fiery block-stone
whip-scarred bloom.
It curses with hope the unlucky.
Old men.
Unmoved haters of night.
For those emptied the moon is a pock,
a silver sore, a scab of powder & ash.
The moon turns a blonde blue,
and the moon sends a young man
to the cliffs on his twenty-eighth year.
Grandmothers soothe on moony nights.
To the children they say: It can’t not hurt you no ways.
Blue moon is like the sea, blue like a hot bright sky,
chrome when you swing highest,
and just when you nearly loop over, that joy,
children, is moon blue. Real and not real,
the moon must be silver, as honest as a coin.
Jeffrey Hanson received a PhD in English and Creative Writing from Ohio University He has recently retired from teaching after 26 years. He now lives in Bellingham, Washington with his wife Marilyn where he spends his days writing and painting.