Total Lunar Eclipse

how complete can it really get?

fully, i suppose,

as full as the freshly fed belly,

lit by hunger and eclipsed with the meal

satiated by shadow is this vanishing moon

one pinnacle of hope

one hopeful edge of light smiling on the lower edge

soon to dim out

the sun using the earth to tease the moon

with forlornness

with hopelessness

with unequivocal sadness

luckily the earth can't do anything completely

as quickly as dim hope seeps away from the bottom
        of an eyelid

it lights back up shining down from the upper lashes

moon eye twitching upward as

its purpose is passed back playfully

over its cold cracking seas

ephemeral perhaps but useless never

praise to the beautiful bastion of battered rock

continually tickling our continental shores

with such carefully contrived tides

blessing us boys with the baffling buffoonery

of the mensing ladies keeping us forever flustered

praise to the seemingly eternal and shape shifting orb

for lighting our woodland pathways in full bloom

and exposing our darkest fears when new

praise to the fully eclipsed moon

black-red as blood

soaking up our horrors, fears, sins and sorrows

so we can smile afresh, forgive

and refill ourselves with love and naivety

By Mark Bradford.