Video of the Rotation of the Moon
Such sights cannot be seen
from pimpled terra firma
but from the silk galaxy of my screen
looms the moon in full rotation,
hung from spider optic cables – this
seabed opal
seen by every human to have lived past sunset
yet never like this.
On first click, I slurp spaghetti
and curse at my spattered keyboard,
and then feel guilty (or, slyly, smug)
at my casual dealing with God’s eye-views.
My wonder is unlit, so inured am I
to seeing inaccessible nooks and crannies
but imagine!
An unwashed serf at my shoulder
witnessing this witchcraft
– his intake of breath
honks of turnips and beer;
his stories clatter to the floor.
On replay
he is stoic. Shaking his head, remains
closed in his clear green eyes.
“So that’s what it would look like?”
In the unflinching gaze of Science, that hall that encompasses all,
yes it is. That
is how it is.
He shrugs, returns to potatoes and mirth,
though as he crosses the threshold, calls back to ask
have I seen the clip of
Neptune’s cleft chin, or Brendel chasing a cat?
The video stops but I don’t replay
a third time.
I remain gazing at
the dark pixel waste.
Since graduating from Leeds, Edinburgh tribesman Edward Belleville has been trying to combine travelling, teaching and writing with paying the rent (so far so good). Previous publications include in The Cadaverine, in the anthology Strangers in Paris (Tightrope Books), and in student journal Poetry and Audience.