LUNACY
Abstract: a crayfish crawled out of the water, drawn by moonlight. its shape is barely visible on the sand. its claws clank like wine glasses, and it makes me uneasy. i instinctively curl my toes to protect them from the threat. my dog paws spiral inward.
a wolf laughs at me, showing a set of teeth way sharper than mine. he's standing on the other side of the sandy trail, and his bloodshot eyes reflect the moon. he howls. i can only bark.
i'm pretty sure both of our prayers remain unheard. we admire the face of our goddess: eyes closed tight, eyebrows furrowed. i can't shake off the feeling that she's in pain. or maybe she's trying to gather all her strength to stay exactly in the middle between two grey towers on the horizon. her efforts are useless—the motion of celestial spheres is inexorable. the moon disappeared behind distant mountains like a coin thrown into frozen waves of inhospitable sea—it's not a fountain, and there's no guarantee of return.
the crayfish asked me in a hushed voice about the location of my tail. i wag the absence of my tail and try to chase after it. canine habits. it didn't take me long to develop them. my paws are rubbery, and my spine forms the golden ratio on the sand. i bite the nothingness behind my back. without the moon, i start spiralling again. i jolt awake when my bones break.
Concrete: the moon card in the tarot is associated, among other things, with deception (according to A.E. Waite's 1910 book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot). The moon is an entity that operates with photons stolen from the sun. The detrimental effects of being exposed to that light have been known to humanity since the dawn of time. Lunacy is a special kind of insanity. It smells of silver and cobwebs.
Equine recurrent uveitis gradually turns horses' eyes into little moons. The real cause of this disease is still unclear, but back in the day, it was blamed on the lunar influence.
The iconic landing scene from "A Trip to the Moon" can thus be interpreted as an act of revenge for diseased horses and disturbed citizens. An eye for an eye.
Yet the ghostly circle remains in the mind's eye, obscuring our vision of the universe. On the cosmic scale, the moon is a speck of dust compared to the stars. It doesn't even produce its own radiation. And still, we perceive the sun and the moon as counterparts, as if they are equal.
The moon is a black hole that feeds on our interpretations of it. It's the most overused poetic symbol. Lunar mares overflow with hidden meanings; the moon inflates like an air balloon. With every turn, it's getting closer to Earth. One day the moon will hit the mountains instead of timidly hiding behind them; one day the horses will go blind; one day I'll turn around and see a crayfish on my tail.
Fir Corvid, ?, ? ✯