wesiderata

Driving home from the town 20 miles east, enjoying the long stretches of darkness (as much as one can while being hyper-attentive for deer and other wildlife on the road) a glimmer in the distant west caught my eye. It was the moon. It must've been the first day after a new moon and I don't think I've ever seen the arc so slim, so ethereal. I found a place to pull off the road, grabbed the old telescope I haul around in the car, and was able to get a passingly good image with the magnification on high. It was almost to the horizon when I found it in the narrow field of vision of the 'scope and it looked like a science fiction book cover. The Moon was a huge flame-orange crescent, yet so thin as to be barely visible, delicately hanging in a sky still tinged with just a whisper of twilight. And then I watched as, with all the grace of the eternal celestial dance, She touched the dark horizon and slowly slipped into the night.