Eclipse

Sonya Schneider

Oliver Watching the Eclipse | Sal Taylor Kydd

We don our special glasses
& wait for the shrouding
of the sun’s bright face.
We are the lucky ones
living in the dark inner
umbra. I come expecting
obscuration. Still, I’m hit
by surprise at the sudden
darkness & the chill
that climbs through my body.
Across the yard, trees transmit
light into hundreds of crescent
moons. Even my shadow
turns sharper. My son points
to the cloudless sky, his arm
covered in goosebumps.
Heads tilted upward,
we dwell briefly in totality.