Patricia Hope
Moonchild
Last night I waded in the waters of the moon,
thrust my feet in the cool liquid that’s nothing
like the waters on Earth. It’s part moondust
and part something else: a silvery, silicon,
slippery substance that glowed when I pulled
my foot through it. I felt like a young kid instead
of a 12-year-old, giddy, happy, carefree, no one
to make me come in.
But when I saw Earth blue green in the dark sky,
I got homesick, stopped kicking moonstones around,
hitched a ride on a shooting star and slid off into
my back yard. I tried to wipe the moondust off
and creep into bed before my mom knew I had gone.
I hope she doesn’t ask me why my red sneakers
are covered in glitter. I don’t think she’d approve
of me flitting about the universe and bouncing
around on the ball of the moon.
_______________
Patricia Hope’s award-winning writing has appeared in Anthology of Appalachian Writers, MockingHeart Review, Artemis, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Bluebird Word, Pigeon Parade Quarterly, The Mildred Haun Review, Liquid Imagination, American Diversity Report, and many others. She lives in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Author’s Notes and Backstory: This poem was written from an ekphrastic prompt of the full moon, after a conversation with some other poets about using more fantasy and surrealism in our poetry. So, I thought about seeing the full moon as a child and how much fun it would be to play on the moon, but then in a moment of realism, I knew my mother wouldn’t like the mess that would make, thus the ending. I admit it’s one of the few times I’ve allowed my poems to stray from “making sense.” Letting go of that is difficult for a logical mind but I’m hopeful I can do more of it in future poems.
Editor’s Comments and Image Citations: Image created by 123RF Image Generator with input “A view of Earth from the moon, a little girl skipping in red sneakers over moon rocks, a shooting star in the background”