Moon Boy
I remember when I first carried you out into the night garden
To see the new moon,
A big bright jewel in the sky shining,
Like your new eyes
And as you looked in wonder and pointed.
I felt that I had begun
To ease you into knowing what you had been thrown into
To show you something of the sheer ancient size
Of this place, this life.
And each time you then caught a glimpse of its orbit
From your bedroom window or the car
You would point again in excitement – “Moon!”
One of your first words.
And we would be excited too, remembering our wonderment
At your arrival
Of being alive on this small delicate blue dot
I hadn’t even shown you the stars back then.
Now, we speak of Saturn’s rings
Galaxies
The Universe
And The Big Bang
That moment of creation
Too enormous to take in.
David Wilberforce
About David Wilberforce
"I live in Hull in the north of England (a poetic city!) I am a retired learning disability nurse and now work for myself as a psychotherapist and do some teaching and volunteering too. I write poetry when the mood strikes but I rarely share what I produce."
Twitter @Davidwilberforc
About this poem
"It is about the time I did take my son Jack - then about 1 or so - out in the garden to show him the moon. He is 10 in a week or so, and our conversations about life, the universe, and everything are very different now; we often speak of the miracle and mystery of life and I tried to capture something of that in the poem. The other day Jack concluded that it would be boring to live forever. I concurred."