Venus on
the Moon
They tell me, in the
song, that a woman cries out to the moon rising above a glimmering
lake. And as
the moon rises to its perihelion, the woman in the song opens her arms
to the
light that falls from the moon. But her sorrow remains. There is
nothing that
moonlight can do to calm the woman, and her cry extravasates.
They tell me that a
woman will sing this song when her husband or lover has died or left
her for
someone else. The longing and hurt in the cry that compels the song is
not
something that singing can absolve either.
She sings of cruel
truths and fickle passions, And the anger that scuttles her heart is
relentless
and useless.
They tell me that
after she sings this song, the grieving wife, the wounded lover,
understands
just how much she has lost; gaining this loss that undoes her.
They call this song
“Venus on the Moon,” and no one ever wants to sing it but they do.
Things
happen
They
sing it.