myth for bonfire moss

The moon had a brood with no purpose. The young did not glow. They were not dark as the sky; they could summon no meteor to fly above their heads them. Now, of course, the moon is a subtle place. To human eyes it looks as white as a pearl, but it is not. Run your finger upon the surface and you will see the paleness is powder and the moon is lovely and glittering beneath. At one time the moon was brilliantly colored as the northern lights and as shifting star. This is how it came to be so covered in ash.

The brood grew up, there above the world, looking down at the clouds passing in herds, and oceans swirling in curious dances. While the aliens watched the world for a long time, looking down with their bright green eyes with curiosity, all the while, the poplar had been looking up. The poplars reached up so high so that they might touch the moon and bring down in all its beauty, to embrace the width of her themselves. They left their roots on the ground and traveled up as high as they could until one day, at the setting of the sun when the moon was low, they spread their leafy branches around her.

The poplars embraced the lovely and multicolored moon at last. She was a cooling heat to the blistering sun and soon the poplar and moon fell in love. Meanwhile, the brood dispersed into the forest of the world which they had been so curious. When the sun rose the following morning to find the moon was nowhere to be found, they searched everywhere for her. The moon has important role to the waters which make up the heartbeat of the world, so they searched everywhere, afraid the world would fall apart without its moon. Upon finding her in the forest the sun, in a rage, burned the whole place down.

In order the save the earth from burning altogether, the aliens found that they were able to slowly eat the flames. Little by little the aliens eased the fire until the wood was nothing but a few stalks here and there.

The moon, now back in the sky was covered in ash, and the alien brood moved to the few ferns that survived the blaze because they found that ferns were patient enough to teach them everything they needed about earth. The rocks were too massive and spoke in time that was longer than the aliens could contemplate. But they found the ferns were at the same time measurement that the aliens were. So this is where they live, even to this day. But from their home by the ferns the aliens continue to slowly eat fires. But as they have spread over our home, they have learned about the beauty of the earth. They have given it soft and vague, moonlike ways.

The poplar, who misses the sun, turned the silver at the underside of its leaves where it had held the moon once, a memory of the connection they once had.

Irene Lee