…and Just by chance I looked up at the moon

and saw the false brightly lit orb shrouded by a perfect circle

where clouds had formed separating to make a giant’s eye.

Unblinking, all-knowing, understanding the darkest secrets

of the solitary magpie sheltering in the darkness of the church eaves

and its feathers ruffling, tearing at the bird-like sleep, dozing

dreaming of glittering bauble and fully formed salutes

from passing strangers.

The moon is but a mere child’s pebble thrown, ejected with violence

onto a dusty unused sandpit, the hollow crater surrounded