Love Affair With The Moon 2012
Janet Kuypers
(based on a 2005 poem, revised and edited 20120308)
how do we understnad this love
for what we see in the night sky
I think everyone loves the moon
and I think everyone was transfixed
to their televisions or radios
when we made that first one small step for man
that one giant leap for mankind
scientists at NASA during the cold war
considered setting off nuclear bombs
on the dark side of the moon
because, you see,
no one sees that side of the moon
and it would be a safe distance from the Earth
but what would that do to our weather, or our orbit?
the earthquake that caused
the devastating tsunami in Asia
slowed the rotation of this planet for a full second —
and they say commting nuclear atrocities on the moon
is a safe distance from the Earth
our calendars have leap years
‘cause we can’t get the time right...
in a few months we even have to add seconds to a day
to adjust our caledar
to the slowing of the Earth’s rotation
astronomers now estimate
that because of gravity’s change
the moon, every year
is almost 4 centimeters farther away from the earth
so if you remember the moon looking so big
when you looked at it in the night sky
when you were little, well,
you may have been right
astronomy is like a forbidden love affair
something whose constancy can give you hope
even when you’re only standing outside
in the night and looking up at its perennial beauty
it is something one person may never actualy touch
but it is something we can always,
like a star-crossed lover,
admire from afar
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