The Moon Illusion

What are emotions, opposed
To sensations, such as warmth
Or chill, to which they’re compared

Falsely? You’re not cold rising
At three a.m. from the fog
Of highly emotive dreams,

Submarine moon surfacing
Against black mountain backdrops,
No more than the moon is vast

In its low-lying cloud bank.
You feel an immensity,
A swollen sorrow, a glow

As if you’d swallowed the moon,
As if it rose huge against
The fragile cage of your ribs,

But you don’t know what it is,
This cold reflection in you
You know is ordinary,

You know you are misjudging.
If scanners could photograph
The extent of emotion,

They would only give you back
A little white disk of light,
A moth on the horizon.