Farewell Luna

“Tonight is the last time we will ever get to see it.” That’s what the man on the news said. The Moon has been slowly drifting away from us since the dawn of time, and now the time has come for it to leave Earth’s orbit. It was strange to think that the Moon would no longer be in the night sky, but I don’t think anyone realized just what that would mean to us.

Everyone was excited. We were going to see something that no one had ever seen before, and that no one would ever see again. The media had been raving about it for weeks, and interviews with astronomers were replayed on every channel countless times. They said it was going to be a great chance for research, and that it would be the most exciting thing we will ever see. I don’t know anyone who didn’t go outside that night to see it fly across the sky for the final time, and many people, myself included went far out into the countryside to watch it against the backdrop of all the stars in the heavens above.

It was almost dreamlike. Or at least I wanted it to be dreamlike. I sat on the edge of my uncle’s farm just outside of the corn field and stared up at her for hours. In actuality it was no different than any other time I had watched the Moon cross the sky, but I wanted to believe that there was something special about watching it that very last time. Everyone wanted to believe that it was something special. All of the hype had told us that it would be magical and beautiful. It wasn’t. It was downright horrifying, and I didn’t realize what we were about to lose until she neared the horizon.

Suddenly it didn’t seem special at all. It seemed like some evil trick carried out by the heavens themselves. The Moon had always been there. Since long before recorded history, long before man appeared to make his mark on the Earth, there was the Moon. I suddenly saw things from a different perspective. I saw things from my planet’s point of view.

This was no longer just about a familiar light in the sky going away. To the Earth it was so much more than that. I suddenly felt my heart grow heavy as I placed myself in the Earth’s position. The Moon had always been there, and now it was leaving. I felt like I was being walked out on. Like my wife of countless years was simply leaving without as much as a goodbye or reason.

I jumped to my feet and struggled to find something to say. I wanted to fall back to my knees and beg it to stay. I wanted to stop it somehow. Seeing things as the Earth might see them, I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs. I wanted to command it to stay! It just had to stay! I refused to let it do anything else!

Then as the Moon slipped below the horizon, I simply stared at the spot where it once had been. What right did I have to command the Moon to hold its position by our side? The Moon is a celestial object far greater than I, a mere man, would ever be. What right does a man have to command something so great and so beautiful?

No more right than the same man has over a woman. And so I stared at the sky where she had once been, and watched the stars disappear with the rising sun. I was done screaming, and so I whispered.

Farewell my Luna.

Word Count - 619