I don’t remember ever being
awakened by the moon before –
but it happened, last night at 3 a.m.

My eyes blinked open to a light
beaming, round and picture-framed
through my bedroom window,

at the perfect angle and albedo,
full, silver-white and crater-faced,
hanging low in the west,

like a night watchman, nearing the close of his day
on the graveyard shift,
a guardian on rounds with a flashlight.

Three o’clock and all’s well.
I drifted easily back to sleep,
somehow comforted by that thought.

01/28/2002

Posted on 01/28/2002
Copyright © 2026 Bruce W Niedt