Reflections of the Moon: A Collection

Written by Sarah Wagner
Photographed by Joseph Duarte
Model: Stephanie Morrill

Autumn

“Live by the sun / Love by the moon”

A cheap rhyme I scribbled down
and tucked into the corner of my gown

Sentimentality sounds prettier
when she’s dressed in satin and lace

She makes me struggle to write honestly
because I am ashamed of my humility

Distracted and dissected
I ask myself silly things

What are the sentiments for clouds?
Who is going to send in the clowns?

Why do they bury the father
who would greet me upon my rise?

And must they enshroud the mother
who would caress me as the day dies?

I know your sun will look different from mine
colder and older and blinding as snow

But I know he will bring hope to you
feed you and bless you and see your music through

I pray that your moon remains the same as mine
painted with stars like a porcelain doll

For she will bring comfort to you
and subdue my tears into weak morning dew

La Luna

She threw me against the shore
  dragged my body over rocks
  and stones threw sand in my
  eyes until all I could see was dust

Stardust glinted like mirrors
  tiny shards compacted into
  millions of hands to study and
  refine and perfect the disillusioned image

Imagine the joy of a storm at sea
  triangular prisms refracting
  electricity into unspeakable
  colors of energetic waves bright with violence

Violet buds shaking too much to bloom
  sequestered on icy mountain
  tops where the glacial oceans
  once traversed her bluest green earth

We wait, in the darkened cold, for the arrival of her solar partner

What do we owe to each other?

If I was a star
in the chilly night sky
I would be a light to guide you home

If I was a wave
at the ocean’s rocky shore
I would be a cleansing breath washing over your body

If I was a tree
in a field sunny with daisies
I would grow my limbs tall enough to show you the world

If I was a grain of sand
blown across white dunes
I would slip between your toes making you laugh like a child

If I was the moon
the radiant crescent outside your window
I would give you the brilliance of day in every endless night

A Land Without Mountains 

When I hold the sun in my hands
I feel its warmth and resonance
My skin glows with radiance

When I hold the moon in my hands
I feel its light and vibrations

My eyes shimmer with energy

When I hold the stars in my hands
I feel their depth and power
My body whispers its strength

When I hold you in my hands
I feel your aura surround me
We are safe

We are loved

Cityscapes

I used to hide my daydreaming
I would lie and say I was napping
Or snatch at the nearest book and pretend I was reading
I thought daydreaming was a childish thing to do

It’s alright to be lost in thought if it leads you somewhere
If you write stories about the places you discovered
If you create music of the sounds you summoned
If you paint drawings of the life you imagined

They tell us not to be lost
They tell us we’re wasting our time
They assign us ever growing lists of Things To Do
Some days I make myself become lost

I stare at the rain on the windows until my eyes cross sideways and the great oak tree is
growing out of the bottom of the moon
I am lost for five minutes, for ten, for twenty
I am lost for the day
And it was the most beautiful storm