OWLING AT THE MOON

Wide eyes of wonder

Look for the rising moon…

We “owl” past the distant trees

To see what will fortune.

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Large and round or misshapen

It looms above the trees…

Prophets, priests and princes

Fall upon their knees!

–

Whether bright or harvest red

Its color changes ought…

Those who think that this portends

Will warn of futures fraught…!

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Whereupon, the distant orb

Will rise into the sky…

Seemedly to shrink in size

And many wonder why?

–

One Earth Science teacher claimed

This totally was wrong…

T was no difference in size,

His disapproval strong.

–

But, says I, the moon

Seems to hold a special gift…

To enlarge and shrink before

And after horizon left.

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One more open-minded wag

Of scientific bent…

Was a more compassionate

Sort to a layman’s bent.

–

Said he that–or was it she?

T was change by point of view…

Look at the moon through your legs

And find size changes, too!

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When we have no reference

As to the moon’s real scale…

It will appear large

Before the sky it sails.

–

Coloration seems to be

A function of the atmosphere…

At an angle sighting through

Haze or pollution near.

–

Scientific explanations

Scarcely shed the gloom…

Or the wondrous joy we feel

When owling at the moon!

–Jonathan Caswell