The same moon - Michael Bedward

This is the same moon
Backlighting the chance shapes and symmetries
Of fast moving clouds
Now a pair of hands
Now angel's wings
Now something almost recognised
Tugging at me
Fleeting

This is the same moon
Suddenly bright and unobscured
Undistanceable
But somehow the same as
The black and white television moon
Of my childhood
Closer then
Within reach

I shone my brightest torch into the night sky
Wondering if it could be seen from the moon
And knew that I would be there one day
Because it and everything was within reach
I lay in the backyard gazing up
Tucked into my imagined cramped capsule
Counting down
Ready

This is the same moon
Shining tonight on my adult head
Floating impossibly in the terrible void
That I will never cross nor comprehend
Hidden by cloud once more
It is lost
And I look down
Anxious for gravity