PLEA, a prose piece by Merle Strauss

April’s full moon, called “Pink Moon,” heralds the appearance of a particular pink flower.  It is the year’s biggest and brightest supermoon, as it is the time when the moon is closest to the earth.

Not knowing about the flower relationship, I expected to see a pink-hued moon on the night of April 7th, and decided to go outside to experience this astronomical phenomenon.  I was totally unprepared for my reaction.

My intense experience, directly related to the time we’re in now, propelled me to quickly write PLEA.

Merle Strauss

Plea

The night of “The Pink Moon.” I hasten outside. You’re perfectly round, not pink, but white - and so bright, radiating a glowing halo of rainbow dust.

How could something so perfect and beautiful, at rest, be in the sky, while here on earth all is surreal and people are sick and dying, and there are those who are dangerous and denying, where I feel as if I am living in a novel because all is too terrible to be true?.... but it IS true.

How can you and I co-exist? It seems impossible.

Moon, you are a goddess. As a woman, I pray to you to help us end this pandemic, this horror, this carnage.

Tomorrow night is Passover. Just as the Jews were freed from being slaves in Egypt, let humanity be freed from the corona virus. Just as a miracle happened and Moses parted the Red Sea, please perform a miracle for us. Make the virus pass over us.

I am but one tiny voice in the universe, Moon, so please spread some rainbow dust on me so that I know I am heard...


April 7, 2020
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Handprints, the poetry and prose of merle strauss, was published in 2019. In addition to being an author, Merle plays chamber music in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and sings in an opera chorus, the Verdi Chorus, in Los Angeles, California. In Los Angeles, at The MS Achievement Center, Merle practices dance/movement therapy with groups of individuals who have multiple sclerosis, and in Santa Fe, through the Santa Fe Symphonie’s Mentoring Program, she works with students in string orchestras in public schools.

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