What Joy! Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

How many more full moons will I see before I die?

Tonight it is bright: on a clear May sky.
In front, a bright Venus is sloping West
I am listening to Parag Trivedi on iPod
Appreciation of Western Classical Music.
Parag illustrates with Grieg's morning
And Chopin's Raindrop.
I am hale and hearty at sixty-four
Enjoying the use of all my faculties
Enjoying the breeze and my evening walk
Without a care, or any deadlines.

I decide to walk more than usual
Climb up the skywalk for two kms more
On way back I find the Moon
In the midst of black and grey clouds
Of a shape irregular, wordless
To describe when the last bit of the Moon
Hides into the cloud but soon emerges
Like the train from the Konkan tunnel
Till my beloved from her sleep in the morning
Like a bright young girl into sunlight
Like the butterfly from the cocoon
Like a poem in my clumsy, confused head!

After gazing at the Moon from stairs
Of the skywalk, I climb down:
In those few moments
The sky has cleared again
Like by magic! She is now
Just alone in solitary splendour
Shining greenish soft light
In a full sky, full of inscrutable life.