Turtle Moon

Turtle Moon

Look quick
I call to my wife
as a snapping turtle
clambers from its log
onto the full moon,
its first crest
of white light
rising over our lake.

We jump in the rowboat
head out on the water
for a better view
of this phenomenon:
A turtle on the moon
crossing the clean expanse
of the cloudless
July sky.

We weigh yelling
to the neighbors
in cottages
on the shore
that there's a turtle
balanced atop the moon,
it's ancient claws dug in,
head moving side to side
looking down at our boat,
breathing in the windless dark
sweeping of space.

From the center
of the lake
my wife and I
wait for the night
to lighten,
for the moon
to deposit the turtle
on the opposite shore,
for the turtle to wonder
how it managed
to travel the long slow night
from here to there.