The Mask of the Moon

Last night, upon gazing out my window, I saw the full moon, the Thunder Moon, light up the nighttime sky with an amber hue. As the sky around it darkened, the moon shone in her true beauty.

I immediately reached for my camera. The first few images I took were out of focus, blurry, not at all showing the true brilliance I saw before my eyes. I later got some very nice photos, in sharp focus, with great detail.

I then left that window, and went to another. I lifted the camera to my eye. At that moment, I saw a double image of the moon. I took a photo. The double image I had seen showed up in the photograph. I questioned my eyesight and shut my eyes to give them a momentary rest. I opened them again, and still saw a double image of the moon.

I suppose the double image can be explained because I was taking the photo through a window, through a pane of glass, not as my eye would naturally see it while looking at the sky outside. But there on my camera was the double image of the moon, just as my eye had seen it.

The photo could be seen as an error, because I took the photo from behind a pane of glass. I do not see it that way at all. 

I see it as a stroke of luck, an uncommon occurrence; my friend Luna was letting me see a side of herself that I had never been privileged to see, a way that I had never seen her before.

In the photograph, the image we normally see when we look at a full moon, the “face” of the moon, is on the left; on the right, the moon, an amber orb of light, shining in all of her glory.

To me, it looks as if the “face” of the moon is really the mask of the moon-the face the moon shows to everyone in the universe. I was lucky enough to have captured Luna taking off her mask, showing her true, abundant self, the essence of her being. 

Thank you Luna, for taking off your mask, letting me see the beauty of who you really are.

 Poem and Photo © Esperanza Habla All Rights Reserved