hello moon....................

The thinnest of slivers can come 
as a surprise some nights.
A girl leaving a restaurant
points up to show her friends.

And there is the full one,
bloated with light,
a bright circle over the city
keeping the dreamers from sleep.

But the moon tonight 
is crossed by a drift of clouds
and looks like a mug shot
of a criminal, a cornered man.

One of its seas forms a frown
that makes for a grudging look.

The last thing it ever wanted

was to end up being a moon.

It's the only light in the sky
save for a solitary star,

whose sisters and brothers
must be blinking somewhere afar,

leaving the moon and me
to circle in our turning places,
his face remote and cold,
mine warm but vexed by his troubles

-Billy Collins, Many Moons