Eclipsed by the Moon - a poem of the day

No telling what might happen

tomorrow

but tonight 

the moon eclipses the sun

over Albuquerque

and all is still in the afternoon 

with fans blowing breezes across porches 

and

the mind has a heart of it's own

where gusty winds and rattlesnakes

exist

No telling what might happen

tomorrow

but just now the smoked chicken is done

the tangerines ripen in the windows

of our dreams

and somewhere a man is about to kiss a man

and all the world's a stage with 

Facebook faltering and

all of us driving fast cars

typing letters into boxes
taking turns

too fast

No telling what might happen

tomorrow

but Robin Gibb and
the Bee Gees stopped "Staying Alive' 

and that guy who blew up Pan Am 103 

over Lockerbie, Scotland in '88

died a slow death too today

with the world turn turning around

with history moving through time
as protesters storm Chicago

and those kinder gentler

machine-gunned hands

back again

No telling what might happen

tomorrow 

but today a deadly earthquake crumbled 

crumbling buildings  in Italy...

ciao!  to those that live amidst caved in cathedrals 

castles and bell towers falling
and just now
our dogs sleep
cool floors to fur
and china cabinets
hold dreams of mothers
long gone

No telling what might happen

tomorrow 

but today Tropical Storm Alberto 

rippled the waves of Charleston 

weeks before storm season begins 

and across seven North American states 

wildfires burn and folks in Wichita ask

Why'd the tornado cross the road?

No telling what might happen

tomorrow 

but tonight we stand by pink cactus blossoms 

beside roads where once hands across America joined 

and tonight thousands don sunglasses 

and stare in silent wonder beside ancient 

volcanoes and petroglyphs 

just this side of Albuquerque 

near the Rio Grande 

where convergences 

were once harmonic 

No telling what might happen

tomorrow 

but tonight the moon eclipses the sun

over Albuquerque 

all of us glad to be alive

all of us having shared times past and present 

with  histories of planetary folk and cave men

Cowboys and Indians 

and laughing ladies 

behind orange sunglasses 

parked  next to us 

here 

at this barbed wire fence facing west

all of us cheer the end of this day 

all of us going home 

to view the mystery 

on plasma screens 

with higher definitions 

filmed by the experts 

no less blind than we.

©2012

Jeff Hartzer

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