Last night the moon seemed to say something as I stared up at it from the damp pavement. Perhaps it was just in my mind. Things often were, after all. I talked to my dog as if he could understand me, and frequently argued that he could. When my foot crunched a leaf in my room, I created a vivid story about how it had come to be in that very spot at that very moment rather than growing from the tree where it first came into the world, or resting under the branch that it called home.

But whatever the reason, be it an intense brightness unlike past nights or simply my overactive imagination, I felt particularly drawn to the moon that night. It was just a sliver, like the Cheshire Cat’s smile, floating in and out of thin grey clouds left behind from the afternoon rain. I could smell the damp earth as I walked, and the pavement seemed to talk back to me with every slap of my shoe. The moon seemed to be calling out to everything, tendrils of its blue light grabbing at the faces of the leaves, the blades of grass shooting from the hydrated dirt, the black asphalt glowing like onyx. When the clouds touched the glowing grin, they seemed to linger there a second longer than any other part of the sky, caressing the gentle swoop of sharp white light, dulling all the brilliant stars that surrounded it.

As I looked up at the moon, I could almost feel it reflected in my eyes, existing as a part of me. It was like the breath of a kindly whisper in my ear, the touch of a loving hand on my own. The moon reassured me that it was mine, and it was shining for me.

The silent night, broken only by the distant whoosh of tires over damp roads, seemed to whisper the phrase “to the moon and back”. It seemed to mean something different as its light burned gently in my eyes. It was here, and in this moment, it was mine. The stars framing my fingernail moon seemed to twinkle in affirmation, silently calling, yes. This moment is yours. This night is for you. This moon in your eyes is yours alone.

I sighed deeply and closed my eyes, my head still tilted to the heavens. I breathed in the cool, damp air and the sharp smell of fresh rain. I closed my lids still tighter, trying to hold that bit of moonlight in my eye forever, and I smiled to the world.