In The Moonlight

✩⋆Moon⋆✩

Sometimes,

Moon is shy.

I wonder if Moon's parents

Thought she'd grow out of it,

Too.

That's a lie—

I have never known Shy.

I have known Lonely.

I have watched my friends as we walk outside at sunset.

They talk a few feet ahead of me,

Laughing and gesturing wildly.

I am here with them,

Giggling at an inside joke.

But I still feel alone.

When I was a child,

I think I really believed that sometimes Moon is only a crescent,

A tiny fraction of who she is in other phases.

It wasn't until I grew up

And left behind my childhood

That I think I realized Moon is always full.

She is always whole.

There are simply phases

Where part of her is hidden

Behind shadows and the dark sky.

When I was a child,

I hadn't met Lonely yet.

Not really.

Lonely and I did not truly meet

Until maybe high school.

She and I became acquainted in large gatherings

Where Anxiety and Overwhelmed would appear without warning.

Lonely and I are gentle friends—

The kind of long lost friends who reunite

Underneath Moon and Stars.

Lonely is not as scary as everyone says.

Lonely is soft and honest.

People are afraid of her

Because they believe she is married to Depression.

But Lonely is only good friends with Depression.

She is not reliant upon Depression.

She is not tied to Depression.

When people talk about Lonely,

They so often fail to share that she is introspective,

That she is creative,

That she is poetry.

Lonely is often associated with those who are frightening,

But she is often encountered on her own.

Lonely is a lot like Moon.

Lonely and Moon are both

Gentle,

Creative,

Whole,

Beautiful in an often misunderstood way.

I do not know if you are better friends with Shy.

Maybe you are one who only found Lonely

When she happened to be with Depression?

Maybe you and Lonely are not good friends.

But neither was Moon when she first met Lonely,

Or so I imagine.

Moon has always been alone,

But she, too, grew to understand Lonely.

In a universe as vast as ours,

Moon became friends with the only one

Who could see her in every phase.

Now,

Moon, Lonely, and I often gather in solitude.

We hold silent moments in our souls,

And embrace the stillness

Of a night that belongs to no one.

It is in these fragile moments

That Hope and Wonder

Become Me:

A girl watching her friends

From a few feet away.