Lunar Phantoms

 

In the ever still, soft Lunar landscape,

strange flicker appears, in corner of eye.

Hidden spirits seen, in a moon day dream,

of ashen landscape, and obsidian sky.

The sound of breathing, masks stillness around,

Selene's still spectres, are shy to appear.

Behind a grey rock, or in crater deep,

on distant mountain, on dry distant sphere.

Moon apparitions, in long Lunar night,

stark Earthshine shadows, on grey basalt rock.

Strange spangle flicker, on regolith plain,

while back connecting, your spacesuit to dock.

On the distant dry, other airless world,

those silent spirits, form a link between,

Chang'e and Zorya, Selene and Luna,

mankind and moonscape, whilst staying unseen.

The longer your stay, the more that you see,

to Earth sick veterans, shy phantoms emerge.

Conjured Selenites, called into being,

change and movement, the need and the urge.

Introduction

Sometimes when one changes one's gaze or looks around, you may see a movement but when you look again, you see that there is nothing there. If you wear glasses, this tends to happen more often due to reflections.

On the moon, one is always looking at the surface through a glass visor or window.

I predict that when we have a long-stay presence on the moon that our need to see movement coupled with the unchanging stillness of the lunar landscape and occasional flickers in the peripheral field of vision could become interpreted as Lunar Phantoms.

This poem puts a pagan spin on this.

Copyright Andrew Rea Candlemas 2021