​19th December 1972, by Alan Peat

Astronomical Observations: the Moon, by Donato Creti (Duchy of Milan) 1711

​19th December 1972

We left you then and you look no different. Of course, we’ve all changed. Some of us have shuffled off; others - grown old.  I looked up last night and grainy footage replayed in my head - a small boy watching one small step, and a little later, the last man leaving. Then long years on fast forward. Then now.

This old top-loader of tangled neurons: it still works well enough in ‘play’. But the rewind button has, of late, become faulty.

moon
in the living room
dad in flared trousers

Alan Peat 

Alan Peat is an English writer. In 2021 he placed third in the International Golden Triangle Haiku contest & second in the New Zealand International Haiku contest. In 2022 he was runner up in the British Haiku Society Haibun Award; honourable mention in the Haiku Poets of North California International Haibun contest & second in the Sandford Goldstein international tanka contest. In 2022 he was a guest author at Cornell University’s Mann Library. The following year he won the inaugural Touchstone Award for haibun. He has also written books about ceramics, textiles and surrealist art.