We didn’t plan to leave town-
thought the clouds might burn off in time,
but then decided to drive south
towards the band of light
above the mountain.
We drove as far as we could
in thirty minutes,
until we saw patches of blue sky
and parked the car in a shopping center lot,
in an empty space
next to a dying tree framed
in dirt and cement,
while the black moon began
to cover the sun.
Special glasses protected our eyes,
turned the crescent sun dark orange,
as if it had suddenly become its own moon on fire.
Small groups formed.
People stood by their cars-
put on cardboard glasses
with silver mirrored lenses,
and stared at what could blind them.
We shared our pair of glasses with a man
who had no glasses-
who was amazed
by such serendipity-
that we had traveled a half hour
to end up in this parking lot,
to offer him a chance to see the eclipse.
We passed the glasses back and forth,
and tried to take photos
of this waning star
this elusive wonder-
our cell phones pressed against
the flimsy plastic lenses.
He spoke of the strange, diffused light-
said it reminded him of when he lived back east
and a storm was coming-
how the light was the same.
When the moon started to move away,
I shook his hand and he thanked us.
I asked him his name and he told me.
Although I guessed I would never see him again,
I wanted to remember him
the way I knew I would remember
the familiar shining all around me-
as the sun returned whole and blazing
to a cloudless sky.

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