winter moon

this morning, i woke up facing my bedroom window. outside, it was that time of day when it could still be night, but it might be morning (or at least that was the level of light). as i looked through my gauzy curtain, i could see a ball of light in the sky, but i couldn’t for the life of me decide whether it was the moon or the sun. i put my glasses on, but that didn’t really help. still a big circle of bright light. i finally decided that something that gives off that much light when it’s not totally dark outside, something that perfectly round must be the sun, just through enough cloud cover that i could look straight at it without flinching my eyes. when my snooze alarm went off the second time, the ball of light was still there, only it was a little bit lower in the sky. i put my glasses on, walked to the window and opened the curtains and realized that i’d been looking at the moon. a moon so bright it gave off rays. it was beautiful.