We ate dinner, the four of us,
Watching moonrise through the trees:
Large, chalky round-edged patches
Through still-leafed limbs.
 
Someone pointed out the time.
Someone else noticed the moon had been
Sliced off on its eastern side.
We went to the lake,
 
Steadied ourselves into the boat,
Sat there waiting.
We’re older now, good at waiting.
No one said much.
 
Oh, maybe a few things,
Like, it’s the Earth getting in the way, isn’t it
And, you can just make out the dark of the
Already-eclipsed part.
 
The blood didn’t amount to much.
It was more coppery, the way plumbing and
Telephone wires used to be.
The moon has been at this a long time.
 
Maybe blood is too strong a word.
The thing is, when it was blood,
The moon showed itself.
We could see everything.