If the Moon Only Knew

A wondering poem about a beloved celestial body.

Do you think the moon knows 
how loved they are? 
That on a rock somewhere 
they will never touch, 
entire worlds worth 
of people will pen 
painful, yearning, honest 
verses about them? 

Do they know that
one human's footprint 
on their surface is but 
a symbol for the billions
across time that have 
sang songs of their beauty 
and strung together 
similes about their light 
and wrote entire mythologies 
of their love affair 
with the sun and stars? 

Did they know how 
Sappho and Shakespeare 
would immortalize line 
after line about them 
with longing, or that 
somewhere in the 
twenty first century,
some broke poet from Philly
would find such sweet comfort 
in the sight of them that 
said poet would weave them 
irrevocably into the fabric 
of their most beloved story?

Maybe the moon will 
never know how loved they are. 
But I'd rather spend my nights
hoping we exist in 
a universe where they do.

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YOUR PROMPT FOR THE DAY

What is your favorite memory with the moon? Was it a time you stargazed with a friend, or the way it rose over the ocean? Did you kiss someone by it's light or cry, waiting for it to set so the sun could return? Jot down some verses or create a piece of art that explores this.

If you decide to share something for this prompt, be sure to tag it on social media with #CountdownToTheStars.

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This post is the “Moonlight” entry in the Countdown to the Stars blog series. To learn more about the countdown and the book (coming Nov 2022) visit stillthestars.com.

Featured Photo by Abed Ismail on Unsplash