Eclipse myths

solar eclipse Cleveland Ohio August 2017

Medusa’s Kitchen/Rattlesnake Press features 10 fotos, 9 poems, and 1 song of mine. Stop by for a bite if you’ve the time.

http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2017/08/fair-is-fair.html

Went to Cleveland Metropark’s Blue Heron Boardwalk to watch the solar eclipse today from 1:06 to 3:51pm, with max coverage of about 4/5’s of the sun at 2:30 pm. The pond surface was pretty good for watching the eclipse reflection.

The foto showing curved shadows is from light filtering through the overlapping leaves of trees creating natural pinholes which create mini eclipse replicas on the ground.

We’ll have a total eclipse of the sun in Cleveland in 7 years – on April 8, 2024.

Eclipse Myths

Shrinking fireball in great sunsky
moon going down on sun what’s up

To the Tlingits, sun and moon are lovers
and solar eclipse darkens earth
for more private flux

Are Brother Sun and Sister Moon
incest in the sky?

The great beheaded head of Rahu
eats sun and moon in revenge
but they drop out his slit throat

Some say Eater is
a pack of thieving fire dogs,
or snakes, jaguar, demon, dragon,
coyote, wolf, frog,
a great cranky churlish bear
biting sun for not stepping aside

We bang pots and pans and shout
to scare The Eater away

Birds stop singing
spiders cease spinning
bees buzz louder
cows return to barn
owls wake to eat

The lying moon whispers untruths
into ear of sun
and darkness is our toll

Tatar vampire tried to swallow sun
but spit it out when it burned his tongue

If more than a day of darkness
the spirits of the dead come to life
eat those on earth

I turn unwerewolf
as moon swallows sun

Clumsy sun drops its torch
weary sick darkens
contaminates earth air
we turn pans upside down
to avoid contamination

Moon quarrel sun
Sun quarrel moon

Stock prices tend to fall on eclipse daze
whose rays harm children
best unborn babes not eat in light

The 1715 eclipse foreshadowed misery,
death of great cattle,
and a mortality of old people,
while the Chinese Emperor
fearful for his life
made a commoner King for the day
then killed him after darkness passed

Quick, kill someone before gods kill us
as sun turns her back on our sins
and drenches us in poison dew

Some sacrifice the fair haired
and light skinned,
beat drums,
shoot flaming arrows into the sky
to relight sun’s pilot light

During eclipse
pregnant women birth cleft lip born
food cooked is poison
flowers planted grow more vibrant

Some say
moon dark blocks sun light
in unbright fight

Sun’s too hot to hold
Moon too cold

– Smith, 8.22.2017

solar eclipse Cleveland Ohio August 2017