Moonshine

Moonshine

Humans have long waxed loony on the moon
Goddess Luna’s chariot sped through the night
Making men mad
Murderers vicious
Women pregnant

Mayans saw a rabbit pace lunar heights
Cradled by his loving moon goddess
China’s celestial ruled a realm of bright peace
Instructing her wise rabbit every night to
Pound in his pestle the elixir of immortality
Few ever drank its delights

Moon princess Kaguya fled from Luna to us
Reborn inside a bamboo stalk
A perfect baby no larger than a thumb
Her woodcutter parents raised her for greatness
Yet she refused all, even the emperor of Japan
Floating back across the heavens

In more modern days the moon grew cities
Lunarians constructing an alien world
There Nazis fled total defeat
Rebuilding forces under iron skies
Hitler exchanging one deep bunker
For another

For us the moon lived as a screen
Projecting fantasies across mad millennia
What might be, what can’t be, what must be
We drank moonshine staring at the stars
Anything could happen on the moon

Until we struck its surface
Touched the goddess’ face

And found dryness, dust, desolation
Grey mountains and plains as cold as space
No cities, no canals, no life

What does that say of our future Earth?