ECLIPSE OF HOPE, OF DREAMS

e very time she looks up at the dark night sky of blacks and blues and specks of white—spots of glittering stars gleaming in the blackness—her heart always chills at the sight of the moon, dwelling high above her; whether it is

c urved like a smile or round and full like the planet earth, it is the same: a supernatural thing, an indescribable beauty that

l ights the night sky like a glowing lantern of mystery, like the shadowed glow of dark haunted dreams

i nstantly she feels small under it and she finds herself praying,

p raying to something, to anything beyond her, to understand this moon, to understand why it, along with all the stars and the planets in the sky, is so beyond her reach—to be able to one day immerse herself in it, embrace it with her hands, her body, her human heart and soul, is all she wants—to be beyond this world

s eeing its glow in the midnight dusk is what she lives and breathes for—to know the moon like a friend, to kiss it like a lover, to touch its surface with her hand and feel it and know it and be a part of it, of everything. every time she stares up at the moon she thinks this and

e very time she only smiles, even as a tear, its meaning inexplicable to even her, wells up in her human eye