Eclipsed: August 28

by Pamela Johnson Parker

The lunar eclipse started here about an hour ago. First the moon blushed rose, then reddened, then her center went rust-yellow, as though she were painted with Betadine. Her core disappeared, the word m-o-o-n erased into a singular lower-case o. Hollowed circle, scooped-out melon. Her edges were cantaloupe, then copper-clad, then vanished, and as she disappeared faint stars usually lost in her brightness emerged, lights flickering through the leaves of the water maples like fireflies at dusk. Emmett Till died on this date, at 14: Fifty-two years extinguished like the moon.

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Pamela Johnson Parker, author of Antiques Roadshow: Marriage c. 1967, is an MFA student and adjunct creative writing instructor at Murray State University in Kentucky. She blogs at Pamela's Musings.