Luna

Brighter than the most powerful star At this time of the clone of the day -- The night in which children want to play On streets where nothing would ever mar The excitement in patintero*. Your borrowed light keeps them stop and go. Your being's mystified all the world Since humans began to ask questions. They each had contrasting conclusions About what you are made of and hold: For a blurry eye, you were a star; Curiosity sees plainly the far. 'Til some laws speak of you and the tide, The amount of bleeding of a wound, The Earth's sun-centered merry-go-round, An all the principles you abide. Silent are they in the woman's womb And about how the hill's spring could climb. Dexterity let the rockets fly And told them to land on your surface, Leaving footprints nothing can erase But the wind of doubt and rain of lie. They should have carried a long, long strand And left the one end where I stand. Your shape is malleable to sunlight And the place in the path that you take -- New, quarters, full for calendar's sake. Your absence is a meaningless night For an artist wanting your crescent In his oeuvre with a black content. At times you affront the Sun you owe The magnificence you have at night; At solar eclipse you seem to fight Or, like a large serpent, to swallow The burning and benevolent Sun. A pagan would loudly beat his drum.** I am afraid that you will be lost. Our children will never play at night. Some small islands will be out of sight. The unborn will choose to be a ghost. The Earth of life will miss its best friend, Walking the path with chaotic trend. * Patintero is a local team game in the Philippines. ** According to some folks, the Sun is being swallowed by a large serpent during the solar eclipse.