There was a lunar eclipse here a few nights ago. I wrote this poem after watching it with my neighbor.

Scarlet Moonrise

The children laughed and I saw
Faint outlines in the dirt
Remnants of joy from a long day’s work
Of sales and song and soup
Saints in my yard
Watching the saint above
Below an ancient yellow sun

A mother nurses a child
As light grows dim on her breast
Work unwinds swiftly
The thobwa is brought out
And we drink

To life, to life
Now life rests
In a black sea of stars
He tells me, “kuli duu”
And it is true
No one stirs
For fear of awakening the peace
Of a half-scarlet sun
Beneath a half-scarlet moon
Of disturbing the repose
Of a well-earned relief

In the city, there are lights
Festivals, bars, long nights
But one thousand suns are masked
By bright urban gleam

In the silence of the garden
I am told it is finished
He goes to sleep early
And I am left alone
With the beauty above
And the beauty below

For a time I sit back
And enjoy life’s show
Before it all ends
With the crashing of dawn
And the crowing of hens
In time, it is clear
That all are content
And all are made whole
By sucking on the brow
Of tender sugarcane marrow
That life is uncertain
And time is unclear
But that under time and life are all our sins
And that rebirth is where life begins