I saw a shooting star last night.
There used to be magic in the night sky. For thousands of years, people invented legends about the night sky. The stars formed pictures. The dark side of the moon was unknown and dark.
When I was little, we would sit on the front porch in the summer and wonder about the night sky. My grandmother would look for the Soviet satellite sputnik.
Starkle starkle little twink, who the hell you are I think. I don’t know the rest of the words.
The moon is made of green cheese. The Man in the Moon. How did he get such huge acne scars? Maybe the moon is hollow. That’s why we have to make the moon a nuke free zone. Maybe the moon is a huge ball of dust and to walk on the moon is to sink into the dust.
VISTA Volunteers In Service To America. These photos – of poverty and hunger – were taken in the same country as the country that took these photos – of the moon. It’s a commercial I remember more than 50 years later. There was no money for decent health care. There was no money for food. There was no money for decent shelter. There were unlimited funds for a cold war race to the moon.
Then, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong forever banished the magic. The moon is solid. The moon is made of the same stuff as the earth. The dark side of the moon isn’t always dark and we know what it looks like. The acne scars were caused by meteors crashing into the moon.
Stars don’t shoot. Meteors float around in space. When the earth passes through an area of meteors, some of the meteors burn up into the atmosphere. The light lasts a few seconds and then the meteor is burnt up.
We have knowledge. Lots and lots of knowledge. Each bit of knowledge destroys a bit of magic.
I miss the magic. That’s why I didn’t see a meteor, I saw a shooting star.
That’s why I painted a green cheese moon.
Deb's Art 