Aboriginal Moon Cycle Revealed

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moon

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Inspired by Aboriginal Story: Phases of the Moon - Ngalindi, the moon starts as a lean, young man. He overindulges (waxes) and becomes lazy. He grows fat, becoming the full Moon. His wives, displeased by his laziness, chop bits off him with axes, causing the Moon to fade away to nothing. Ngalindi hides in the dark for three days. After his penance, his light returns. It fills the New Moon, and the cycle starts again in the night sky.

lean moon-man rising
silver skin waxing in stride
girth begins to swell —
his crescent face beams on earth
calling tides to match his plight

Feast and sloth take hold
glutton grows fat and lazy
fills perimeter —
shapes the tide to spring full glut
beckons the dingoes to howl

Fierce-eyed wife rebels
driving bloated moon away
grips a sharp light axe
hacking and splitting the glow
silver shards tumbling below

waning moon retreats
fleeing the unyielding wrath
to hide in dark night
all his bright light bleeds away —
leaving the moon black as pitch

three nights he's empty
fugitive in star-flung sky
tides bereft of pull —
then silver embers re-flare
waxing light into his veins

the wheel turns once more
torn and mended, lean to full
the moon strides the sky —
on the path moon knows by heart
transgression now forgiven

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