Penumbra

Partial eclipse this afternoon,
fog too thick to notice,
further proof it’s all one stuff,
mist, shadows, the moon.

I cannot say to what ends
all day this thought has preyed:
the death of my friends’ fathers,
those, unknown, of Father’s friends.

Things I once thought don’t
make a whit of difference
anymore, a jot of sense.
Not by wit I live, but wont.

Now night has come so close
alone in bed at last
the only sound, my breath apart:
foghorns, remote, morose.

*

Not often that I get to be topical, but here goes.

In honour of the 8 April, 2024 solar #eclipse.

You don’t have to look up at the sun to see #SolarCrescents, as I explain in a blog from 2012: https://alteritas.net/GXL/?page_id=2309