Don’t look,
glance,
bring a glass,
not a Claude Glass,
though, do turn your back
as the guide suggests,
or rather, turn your
heart’s eye away,
ignoring that
fluttered,
nerve sensation
behind the ribs,
it’s nothing
but an atavistic
impulse
triggered,
the second you
approached the bus stop,
saw hanging there
above the shelter’s
upturned L
the milky rounded glint
of our almost full-fat
satellite,
stirrer of waves,
provider of rocky perspective,
and intimately distant reassurance
to any who care to lift a chin,
at least since we first
dropped down from trees –
so there it is, there it waits,
all 7.342 × 10 22 kg of it,
now ease the smartphone
from your pocket,
point it up towards
our ancient friend,
then click.
Now you’ve done it.
___________
Matt Gilbert is a freelance copywriter and blogger, who regularly writes on place,
books and other diversions at richlyevocative.net. Originally from Bristol he now
gets his fill of urban hills in South London.