Meditation on Eclipse I: Lunar Eclipse

 

Sometimes the Earth’s shadow

throws itself unapologetically

and with great longing and abandon

on top of the unsuspecting moon.

We call this a lunar eclipse.

Nobody questions either the Shadow’s

existence or intentions-

we know that, like any other

misunderstood being,

She simply needed some

reassurance that day

of her own grace and power.

A weight to her presence,

a presence to her existence.

She is not without mercy,

she is not being selfish.

 

She has turned the moon

to blood and ash

for its own reawakening

as a luminescent conjecture,

the treatise of reality as dictated

by the fires in the hearts of Men.

For we all have a Shadow;

it is within our capacity,

each and every one, to either

eclipse or uncover, each other.

 

But what say we of the Woman

who we have forced to live

in the punishing shadow

of the circumstances we throw at her;

a permanent state of eclipse? Her

bones too are made from the Earth;

her own Shadow is her anger

after years of relentless appropriation

of her body, her time, her worth.

The eternal dismissal

of her Talents as “ordinary.”

 

(When was the last time you met

 a truly “ordinary” woman?

The poet awaits your answer…)

 

What she grasps at

with claws made of Shadow;

what she uncovers in her Eclipse,

is no more than the power

that should have been hers

at birth. And you throw her down.

You throw her down

in ways as numerous

as the stars visible to the naked eye

when the moon lies in shadow.

How could her empowerment

possibly diminish you?

When a society allows

that the Woman

stands in the light and shadow

of her own destiny,

with her own desires to claim,

something extraordinary is born.

 

The lives and stories of its Men

become more meaningful, too.

Why then do you call one type of eclipse,

an act of Divinity,

and the other, its opposite?

Your women have always wanted

to be more than just progenitors of Men.

When you allow this,

you never need to fear any Shadow,

of man or nature, ever again.

Author's Note

for our city's poetry club. this month;s theme is "eclipse"
we have had a very sobering past few days here, with half of our city without power since Thursday night, our president's ousting of the UN anti-impunity body Friday, and massive protests today by the right against women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and even the teaching of sex education. This poem is for the hundreds of women and girls conscripted into child pregnancy, shamed, and robbed of their future. This is for the ones who stood for progress today.

Picture is my own, a blood moon eclipse.

Work in progress, with the Spanish version being co-written.

I have not been able to afford to check in much these past few weeks- I do not yet get a salary and internet access has been terrible and very expensive and often out of my price range to pay for. I appreciate every single view and comment and review. I will respond when my budget allows me to do so again.

Reviews

[Corset]

A beautifully written contemplation, thank you for sharing with us when you are able.