Here, above,
\ncracks in the buildings are filled with battered moonlight.
\nThe whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat.
\nIt lies at his feet like a circle for a doll to stand on,
\nand he makes an inverted pin, the point magnetized to the moon.
\nHe does not see the moon; he observes only her vast properties,
\nfeeling the queer light on his hands, neither warm nor cold,
\nof a temperature impossible to record in thermometers.<\/p>\n
But when the Man-Moth
\npays his rare, although occasional, visits to the surface,
\nthe moon looks rather different to him. He emerges
\nfrom an opening under the edge of one of the sidewalks
\nand nervously begins to scale the faces of the buildings.
\nHe thinks the moon is a small hole at the top of the sky,
\nproving the sky quite useless for protection.
\nHe trembles, but must investigate as high as he can climb.<\/p>\n
Up the fa\u00e7ades,
\nhis shadow dragging like a photographer\u2019s cloth behind him
\nhe climbs fearfully, thinking that this time he will manage
\nto push his small head through that round clean opening
\nand be forced through, as from a tube, in black scrolls on the light.
\n(Man, standing below him, has no such illusions.)
\nBut what the Man-Moth fears most he must do, although
\nhe fails, of course, and falls back scared but quite unhurt.<\/p>\n
Then he returns
\nto the pale subways of cement he calls his home. He flits,
\nhe flutters, and cannot get aboard the silent trains
\nfast enough to suit him. The doors close swiftly.
\nThe Man-Moth always seats himself facing the wrong way
\nand the train starts at once at its full, terrible speed,
\nwithout a shift in gears or a gradation of any sort.
\nHe cannot tell the rate at which he travels backwards.<\/p>\n
Each night he must
\nbe carried through artificial tunnels and dream recurrent dreams.
\nJust as the ties recur beneath his train, these underlie
\nhis rushing brain. He does not dare look out the window,
\nfor the third rail, the unbroken draught of poison,
\nruns there beside him. He regards it as a disease
\nhe has inherited the susceptibility to. He has to keep
\nhis hands in his pockets, as others must wear mufflers.<\/p>\n
If you catch him,
\nhold up a flashlight to his eye. It\u2019s all dark pupil,
\nan entire night itself, whose haired horizon tightens
\nas he stares back, and closes up the eye. Then from the lids
\none tear, his only possession, like the bee\u2019s sting, slips.
\nSlyly he palms it, and if you\u2019re not paying attention
\nhe\u2019ll swallow it. However, if you watch, he\u2019ll hand it over,
\ncool as from underground springs and pure enough to drink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here, above, cracks in the buildings are filled with battered moonlight. The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat. It lies at his feet like a circle for a doll to stand on, and he makes an inverted pin, the point magnetized to the moon. He does not see the moon; … Continue reading “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maraahmed.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maraahmed.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maraahmed.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maraahmed.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maraahmed.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maraahmed.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22278,"href":"https:\/\/maraahmed.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/22278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maraahmed.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maraahmed.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maraahmed.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}