The Reason for the Moon

This poem appears in the Fall 2016 issue of Modern Age. To subscribe now, go here.

Within the vast Sahara of the sky,
the endless star-sand waste of outer space,
there is a sole oasis. You and I
inhabit this uniquely privileged place.
Here—here alone—the dance of night and day
sedately swings without a lurch or lean.
Here—only—life’s impossible array
of elements decided to convene.

God hung a stony gray globe in our sight
beneath the shining desert overhead,
to signal us that all out there is dead,
that we alone reside with life and light:
that stars and satellites are poor and bare
while our inheritance is rich and rare.

Mark Amorose’s poems have appeared in Chronicles, First Things, Measure, and St. Austin Review, among other publications. His book In the Saguaro Forest collects sixty-four of his sonnets and lyrics.