Sunrise... Moonset...
One season following another...
Thursday morn greets both
Rise and set…
And my westward view
Is multiplied
In heaven’s splendour.
As you know by now,
I always see the sunrise
Reflected back to me
On the buildings
Across the Don River
From my 18th-floor aerie.
But Thursday's sunrise
Underlines this moon's
Setting.
This moon is
Both blue and super.
With my continuing obsession
With the colour blue,
I’d like it to be actually blue,
But, alas, a blue moon
Is not at all blue…
In hue.
You know the expression,
“Once in a blue moon?”
This is simply the olde timey
Designation for
Any second full moon
Within any given month.
But this blue moon
Is also super.
That part refers to
The distance of the moon
From the earth.
Because the moon’s orbit
Is an oval, which means that
The earth-to-moon distance varies
And because of that the moon
Appears to us as changing size
We simply see the moon
As hugely bigger.
Scientists apparently
Don’t all agree
On what the distance
Must be to qualify as super,
But this blue moon qualifies
To everybody.
The next time the moon
Will be this close to the earth
Will be on 5 Nov 2025…
And this will be the last
Super blue moon until 2037.
I can hardly wait!
If this isn't nice, what is?
~ Kurt Vonnegut, of course
