The Sandman and the Moon

An original poetic parable

The day pales at the arrival of twilight As the Sun holds out her hand To the Sandam and bids him enter Then takes her leave

He’d wished to be an angel beloved Perhaps a fairy held aloft by baby’s breath Who’d look up at him in wonder As he granted them wishes with golden dust Sprinkled about their cribs

It was a lonely life The Sandman lived For he had no other The moon had the stars The sun had the clouds The waves, the seashells And the grass, the wind

It seemed all things had others to share with All but him For by his very nature Wherever he passed Everyone slept

He’d tried naughty children Who read books beneath their blankets And thieves who stole through the dark Even police who walked a nightly beat

But each time he came close A smile, a yawn And they too feel into dreams - The thieves there in the street The police on their corners And the children beneath their covers Which he folded back carefully From their small shining faces Not even the nocturnal animals Remained awake when he was about

And now again, blushed light softens Cuing his appearance on center stage once more But tonight the Sandman cannot go on Instead sitting tearfully Even after the sun could wait for her exit no longer He must not be meant to have another Like all the other creations of the world, he thinks

But as his tears fall from cheek to ground He notices a reflection in one perfect droplet A shimmering glimmer A gleam A pale light that seems to beckon

Following the source of the glow The Sandman tilts his face upward And notices the moon It is a large harvest moon Larger than any he could remember before And closer to him than it seems possible It is as if he has never really seen it before This magnificent orb

He waits for it to yawn and sleep Like all other things But it remains silently still In the jewel like sky Still and awake Oh, so blessedly awake

Fearful it is a simple case of sleeplessness A once in a while occurrence The Sandman holds his breath and dares to hope

The moon stirs and begins to speak “The moon is never sleepy at night” itsays Surrounding the Sandman with his glorious mantle As if an arm draped around shoulders companionably “And most definitely never when a friend is in need”

“But you already have all the stars,” the Sandman says sadly “Why would you possibly need more friends?”

“Friends are much like love,” the moon replies. “Both cause your heart to grow ever larger” “The more you have, the more room you can make for others” “And even when you can’t see them or they are very far away” “You’ll know they are always there” “For you’ll carry them with you” “Just as you’ll remain within them” “Part of each other” “Ever to rely upon”

And for the Sandman And each of us It is exactly so

Natalie Frank has had her poetry featured in several anthologies including Untimely Frost. Her fiction has been published in Haunted Waters Press, Weirdbook Magazine, Siren’s Call Publications, Lycan Valley Press and Zero Fiction among others. Her collection of poetry, Disguised I Breathe, In Love I Hold, can be found on Amazon under her pen name, Taye Carrol

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