If
We Had No Moon
John Borneman
If we had no Moon
the face of the Earth would be covered in water,
the sky airless and hot.
If we had no Moon
tides would not have yanked the fishes from the sea,
legs would not have thought to sprout,
If we had no Moon
our gods would have been greatly diminished,
and our stars forced to travel the night sky without companion.
If we had no Moon
Humanity would not have bravely taken that small step,
leaping off the edge of our netless earth into space.
If we had no moon
then last Tuesday evening would not have been crisp,
crickets and frogs would not have harmonized quietly in the yard.
If we had no Moon
I would never have been able to see your face quite so clearly
as I knelt on your father's porch,
watching you place my future back into its felt box,
hand it to me with a chilling caress of your finger
on the back of my arm and tell me
I'm sorry, no.
[This poem was first
published in Star*Line, July 2007]
John Borneman writes
poetry that covers an eclectic range of topics from “home town” to
science fiction and fantasy. He has been published in Star*Line, The Magazine of Speculative Poetry,
and Dark Poets Against Abuse.
John's poetry was nominated for the Science Fiction Poetry Association's Rhysling Award and honorably mentioned in The Year's Best
Fantasy and Horror. His poem "What if..." was selected by the Arts
Council of Indianapolis for IndyGo's "Shared
Spaces/Shared Voices" 2006 public art contest.