Denver Butson

some simple facts about the moon

as far as I know there are no bed-table clocks blinking 12:00 on the moon there are no scarecrows on the moon or sudden dreams about scarecrows that keep you awake wondering if perhaps you just might have been a scarecrow in a past life and no toll booth attendants on practically-deserted turnpikes reading detective novels and wondering if they should try texting her again oh never mind that would seem desperate on the moon  there are no pickpockets on the moon no pockets to pick  no money either or subway cards or the broken necklace of a daughter who cried when it broke  there is nothing a pickpocket would wish he hadn't found in a pocket and wish he hadn’t picked that particular pocket and wish that he could take it all back  stop doing this thing that he does and find another way to pay the rent on the moon  there is no commerce on the moon and there is no man in a gray raincoat playing a blue accordion under that raincoat on 7th Avenue even though it's not raining  there is no 7th Avenue on the moon but I have heard it sometimes rains on the moon  therefore one can only surmise that there must be a cinema up there somewhere  how else would there be people coming out of the cinema on the moon right now and looking up at the rain like it’s the biggest surprise of their lives because it wasn’t raining in the movie they just watched and wondering if it rains after movies and people run toward bus stops and huddle under storefronts and kiss with rain on their faces up there somewhere on Earth

 

whales

I haven’t grown tired of tiny pictures of whales and if I ever confess to have done so  please remind me of this moment standing on the shore and waiting  staring at a particular spot where we just saw them seconds ago  and then gasping with everyone else at once when the spray fountains up and then the waterline breaks and the giant creature emerges into the air. flicking its tail seconds before disappearing again. and all us of standing there like spectators facing in the same direction  not in the least caring how silly we look pointing our cameras or phones at the ocean trying to catch the exact moment another one explodes again into the air  so later at lunch we can show everyone who wasn’t there  zooming in as far as our cameras will allow and even then you have to squint  but there they are again so tiny and blurry and far away and gone the instant we see them but still proof that we were and they were here at the same time at least for that barely perceptible instant