how the moon got what it wished for...
by @nat-lipstadt
when the celestial judges
organized and codified the
planetary laws, the moon
appeared online but
only in the month
of June
it seemed they,
the judges,
were literary bent,
and had an an
affection for
simplistic rhythms and rhymes
yet the moon,
feeling slighted,
demanded an audience,
asking for redress,
demanding a larger share of
the celestial apartment complex
"Why do the sun and stars
appear nightly,
and I am kept on ice
for eleven months?"
the august bodies debated,
orbits examined for
interstellar larger consequences,
and then concluded and
herein responded:
"Tho the sun appears daily,
it is dismissed and tucked away,
like a baby for a good night's sleep,
to survive its infernal heat
the stars, give light too,
a special twinkling,
but it is a cold, dark one,
that only arrives after
being in transit for
millions of miles,
thus exhausted,
they are many but minuscule,
and many invisible to the
untelescoped eye
But your wish will be granted
with conditions thus:
*"nightly you will appear,
and your beauty will be
magnificent, celebrated, and
duly poetically recorded
but for this boon, moon,
you will supply the gravitational
push and pull for poor cousin
Earth
drag its waters to and fro,
an exhausting job,
unglamorous, even by
Earth's inhabitants cursed
who will see you as
a plotter, meddler in their
global and planetary voyages
but like the sun,
your portion, but half,
like the stars, your light,
will be white, cold and hard,
but lacking in sparkle that
makes the stars so delightful
even your appearance nightly
will be occasional incomplete,
sometimes you will be quartered,
even halved, even slivered,
and once a year
the sun will eclipse your
entire lunar glory!"*
the moral of the story,
if you think moon and June,
make a good poetic rhyme,
you gonna end up
working a lot harder,
pushing and pulling,
dragging your best good stuff
from where the sun don't shine