MOONBATH

The recent full supermoon is waning now. It was cloudy here around the full moon but I did manage to catch glimpses of he as she rises so early and sets so late at the moment: early mornings when I went out to use the toilet and the sky was clear, the moon large and sinking towards the horizon; one evening she appeared low in the sky as we left the swimming pool, shrouded in sea mist, her edges softened and smudged.

Two nights before the full moon, I went for a shower in the bathhouse early in the evening. As I made my way back home across the lawn in the dark, the clouds shifted and suddenly I could see my shadow on the grass. I sat down on a plastic chair that had been discarded in the middle of the lawn to admire the moon. I was wearing nothing but a dressing gown but the night was warm enough. Looking at her, I felt inspired to do an Taoist exercise sequence that I have been practising recently. As I moved my arms and breathed, my dressing gown fell open exposing my naked body to the moonlight and I realised that I was moon bathing for the first time in my life.