"That's All We've Got!"

(For my mother, who left 18 years ago but is still a part of it all)

 “That’s all we’ve got!” a voice blasted from the crowd,

Enthralled and apologetic at once, rising above the

Mad symphony of screaming, roaring, shrieking and howling

That picked up speed and volume as it grew darker,

The glaring disc of the sun disappearing steadily,

Unstoppably, behind the unsuspecting moon,

And then there it was, that long expected yet

Completely shocking celestial spectacle

We had all gathered to see.

 

Unperturbed by the momentary panic,

Insanity and pandemonium below,

The sun and the moon performed their

Ancient dance in full form and without hesitation

As they must have done again and again

Through the eons, unwittingly raining

Cosmic blessings on anyone looking up,

Thousands, millions of us,

Stunned and mesmerized by that spectral crown

Glowing in the primordial darkness;

 

Thousands, millions of us,

Made up of that same stuff, 

Giving it all we’ve got,

Moved and disarmed by

All that beauty, all that madness.