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Ashes in the wine
“There’s ashes in the glass of wine from the fire in Malibu canyon”. XFiles 2nd Season Episode title “3”
The blood moon in the night sky
Shone like wine in a goblet held to a candle.
Naysayers, sidewalk prophets, crazed preachers say:
This means the end of the world. When there’s blood on the moon
the world will end.
So many centuries later
we still cower in fear during an eclipse
and huddle listening in fear to hysterical rants..
And was there blood on the moon when my father died (and my world ended)?
And was there blood on the moon when terrorists flew planes into the Twin Towers? (and worlds exploded)
And was there blood on the moon when a woman, child, man was raped and then discarded
(like that wrapper from McDonald’s)?
It was cloudy then it rained last night
And I couldn’t see all of the eclipse of the moon –
The Super Moon
As it came so close to the earth.
You sipped your wine and sat beside me, bored beyond belief
as I patiently watched then you swallowed down the last sip of wine –
You said, It’s over. I want out.
The rain stopped and the full blood moon came out from behind the clouds.
This is being posted for d’Verse Poets Open Link Night. OLN is an unprompted poetry activity where we post whatever poem we wish. Come join us for all the talent linked up. This is linked to d’Verse Poet’s.
kanzen sakura 
Sep 29, 2015 @ 16:12:16
What a chilling end.. a blood moon coming out, just when the end is there. Disastrous.
Sep 29, 2015 @ 16:31:16
Yeppers. Hher world most def came to an end.
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Oct 01, 2015 @ 16:47:37
This is quite eerie, Toni. I never had associated the blood moon with bad things happening, but it seems that more than a few bad things happened at the time of the blood moon. The ending chilled me, and I hope that part is fictional.
Oct 01, 2015 @ 16:57:46
Not that short and succinct and tidy sad to say. It went back and forth for months us trying to decide stay here, go to Japan together, one go one stay…in the end, I stayed he went. Guess he loved his homeland more. He comes from Hakone – beautiful mountainous area. heck, if I had been born and raised there, I’d have left me too. But oh my, so many End Timers get into that blood moon thing. There is a book Four Blood Moons and how the earth will end. Well, it’s been quite a few more than four, know what I mean? and oddly, a Bram Stoker’s Dracula prompted this and then watching that episode of XFiles….poetry comes from strange places sometimes.
Oct 01, 2015 @ 16:58:53
Such a beautifully haunting piece!!
Oct 01, 2015 @ 16:59:46
Thank you Sanaa! 💗
Oct 01, 2015 @ 17:39:20
The ending was an abrupt chilling goodbye as the blood moon came out ~ How sad is that but each to their own journey ~
Oct 01, 2015 @ 18:23:21
Yes, indeed.
Oct 01, 2015 @ 17:52:08
Oh I didn’t expect the sad ending there!
Odd how we give credence to superstitions when (coincidentally) they fit.
Love your words!
Anna :o]
Oct 01, 2015 @ 18:09:34
Thank you!
Oct 01, 2015 @ 18:02:25
This bloody lunar event happened at 8pm on a clear night, so I could observe & participate. Your poem has talons & barbs, for the end-times folks are always looking for the next manifestation of something they can point to as prophesy incarnate. God is in the details as much as any demon.
Oct 01, 2015 @ 18:08:54
You got that right! We were cloudy and rainy in front of this hurricane having a tantrum off our coast. Woe oh woe!! The end is near….
Oct 01, 2015 @ 18:16:50
You had me with the title itself – Great! and kept me till the ed… Enjoyed it very much… Thanks… With Best Wishes Scott http://www.scotthastie.com
Oct 01, 2015 @ 18:23:23
Thank you Scott for your so kind words. Every once in awhile I go loopy and write something other than a Japanese poetic form. I really liked the title too. Grace did a Poetics on titling and I tried really hard. Best, Toni
Oct 01, 2015 @ 19:41:53
that’s pretty great right there.
Oct 01, 2015 @ 20:42:36
It suddenly gets to be a frightening episode. A blood moon brings bad occurrences and we are none the wiser. An eye opener Toni! Never realized it!
Hank
Oct 01, 2015 @ 21:21:57
There is unutterable beauty in ‘wine in a goblet held to a candle’ – I missed the blood moon though some Brits saw it – next time perhaps – meanwhile, I enjoyed this read 🙂
Oct 01, 2015 @ 22:14:29
At last. A reason to play the lottery.
Oct 01, 2015 @ 23:38:50
For a change, the Brits got the good weather!
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Oct 01, 2015 @ 22:10:10
Sad and lovely
Oct 01, 2015 @ 23:01:17
Very nicely done… I like the way you talk about personal worlds collapsing versus total apocalypse.
Oct 01, 2015 @ 23:35:44
Thank you. Apocalypse isn’t personal like, smiling, personal worlds. Some things are so devastating, apocakypse is nothing in comparson. I’ve heard peiple say they are sometimes ashamed of their pain because others have suffered more. Yes, but, they are the one feeling theirb pain, not other people.
Oct 01, 2015 @ 23:47:54
True…personal devastation is a mountain to overcome and needs tremendous strength.
Oct 02, 2015 @ 06:47:44
The sadness is palpable . A good capture.
Oct 02, 2015 @ 10:14:38
Chilling, yet the imaging is palpable and the emotions on the surface. ❤ ❤ ❤
A blood moon makes for a creepy scene in a horror film as well.
Oct 02, 2015 @ 14:49:31
I’m not the superstitious type so any rants about the blood moon go swooshing right over my head but I do appreciate its beauty and the many mysteries of the universe. I loved your second line, “shone like wine in a goblet held to a candle”…a beautiful description. Your ending was a surprise, quietly somber in its delivery.
Oct 02, 2015 @ 17:24:00
I’m not superstitious either. I’ve heard through the years, those End Times preachers ranting and using things like natural occurances to scare people. To me it is an intriguing phenomenon. I didn’t get to see it because of the weather. The photos I’ve seen are incredible!
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Oct 02, 2015 @ 20:28:02
I didn’t get to see it either because of the weather. Couldn’t see a dang thing for the clouds. Some of my family members posted some great photos on Facebook.
Oct 02, 2015 @ 21:12:30
Wow. The Brits sure posted some amazing shots.
Oct 02, 2015 @ 19:13:42
A great build-up there, with those rhetorical questions as well, for a piercingly sad and sudden ending (mimicking life, I suppose). Not too impressed with blood moons and the like, nor the superstitions. Oh, I’d have looked at it all right, but the weather was just too cloudy.
Oct 03, 2015 @ 12:40:54
I sat in my backyard, alone in the dark to watch the blood moon. The first thing that came to my mind was all the atrocities and bloodshed in our world and that perhaps the moon was reflecting them. So sorry that this was not purely fictional but you did a wonderful job of subtly building this up to an unexpected ending.
I really enjoyed this. 🙂
Oct 03, 2015 @ 15:06:20
I am glad you did. Our weather was bad… It is a shame how people will such superstitions to manipulate/frighten people. A blood moon is a naturally occurring phenomenon but it still frightens some of us, doesn’t it?
Oct 04, 2015 @ 20:15:31
I had never heard any of the superstitions around the blood moon, for me it was just a great photo op 🙂 But loved the way you weaved it into the story of endings and possibly new beginnings 🙂
Oct 04, 2015 @ 21:15:42
Being raised around many fundamentalist religious types, I’ve heard it quite a bit. Plus, the ancients feared eclipses or any deviation from the “nature” norm. And yes, sad as the ending is, it lead to a new happy beginning!