it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt

the moon fell tonight
behind the apartment buildings on 81st and Yale,
coasting down smooth at 40 mph,
as I drove down the hill from Harvard.
before the impact that I did not see
it slid behind the tall shadows
that make the hill on Yale higher
maybe, than the moon anticipated.
I thought maybe I'd stop to see
if it would get up again
(it was robust, but looked
a little jaundiced)
but that green arrow steered me imperiously North
and I didn't look back.
If the moon
did not manage to hit the brakes,
if it did not follow my lead, and turn,
I didn't want to see the aftermath:
the lopsided luminous globe bursting on earth
cosmic corpse bleeding
all over those swanky cars and balconies
up at the Vintage,
less devastating than the thought
that it would never race me down the hill again.
Pulling into my own driveway, not a quarter mile from the hill
but less elevated,
I heard no sirens, no disturbances,
leading me to believe that the moon made it okay.
Next time I will take that hill more slowly,
give the moon time
to ease behind the cover of buildings
and crouch there, safe,
until another night.