The half moon rises at midnight with me
An obvious timing for it to happen now that I see it
Illuminated from below by the unseen sun
Bisected straight across parallel to the horizon
The moon is a bowl colored orange floating up
Through the yellow ochre into a bright silver
Casting a sheen of light on the ocean
Seen two hours later when I get up again
The moon now half empty lags behind the sun
Falling back more than an hour every day
Rising later and more shrunken with each pass
Until the sun overtakes it a week from now
Here at the beach the darkness at night
Reveals more stars as our eyes adapt
But the ever present shrimp trawlers close offshore
Shine their bright lights of human presence
The anthropocene image of the moonrise
With a fishing boat beacon adjacent to it
Not far from where the moonshot rockets lift off
Keeps me grounded in the state of the world
If I were a younger person in a deep sleep
Missing out on these nocturnal observations
My life would likely be busy in a way it is not
One of the benefits of my advancing age
