The Eclipse
Whales began to leap up in the sea
and the crickets on land began to sing.
(news report)
I did not get the glasses,
so I stayed inside.
We did not get the full dark,
but as the moon rode past
in its headlong pace,
the light shifted into an unfamiliar key,
the atmosphere darkened,
like haze or sky before an incoming storm.
As if something was about to happen,
the beginning of something unknown
or else the end.
I stepped outside,
but never looked at the sun.
But my eyes started to hurt
and the flesh on my arms
began to sting.
So I went back in
and watched from the screen
as my mood brightened
and the clouds lifted
within.
Dorothy Walters
August 21, 2017
(picture from GettyImages––posted two by mistake and could not correct)