BUT FOR ME THE MOON IS BLUE

Once upon a time there chanced to meet
Two men upon a country street
Upon a lovely. cloudless night
When all the stars seemed very bright

And then one man did chance to speak
Greetings to the other,
As people are quite apt to do
Upon meeting one another.

“Oh, I love these nights when you can see
The moon so bright and true
Don’t you love to see it shine
That lovely shade of blue.”

“What’s that you say?
Did I hear right?
No, No, my foolish fellow.
Did I hear you say the moon is blue?
Dear friend, the moon is yellow.”

“Oh, yes, I guess that could be
From your point of view,
So you see what you want to see
But for me the moon is blue.”

“My friend, what can I tell you,
The fact is absolutely true
The moon’s as yellow as can be
How can you say it’s blue?”

“Well, my friend, what can I say,
While for you that might be true,
There’s no one way to look at things
So for me the moon is blue.”

“How can you say that this is true
My newfound friend what’s wrong with you?
Tell me, if you add up two plus two,
I get four and what of you?”

“My, dear friend, why do you fret
I guess you just don’t get it yet.
Let me try to help you see
The answer’s plain as it can be.

While two plus two for you is four
For me the answer may be more.
It may be more, it may be less
It’s whatever number that I guess.

Though two plus two for you is four
For me it’s five or six
It depends upon the mood I’m in
The answer that I pick.”

So while for you it may be true
That two plus two is four
I find it so old fashioned
I find it such a bore.”

“My friend, if what you say is right
Then nothing can be true
And for me the world is upside down.
How can that work for you?”

“My, dear friend, do you not see
A moon that’s blue is right for me
And since I have no wish to fight
Let’s make this work, we’ll both be right.

It can be day and still be night
I believe that to be true
And something wrong can still be right
So for me the moon’s still blue.

There can be two sets of truth
One for me and one for you
Let’s just agree to disagree
Truth is whatever works for you.”

“I’ve listened to all that you have said
And now it really hurts my head
The moon is blue,
The grass is red
And two plus two is three
I find, at last, I must admit
That you and I cannot agree.

“We could go ‘round and ‘round this thing
Till we drop, both, to the man
And still be in no closer place
Than when we first began.

“And so I now must take my leave
You must believe what you believe,
There seems to be no one thing
On which we two agree.

“For I believe there are some things
On which the world is based, you see.
Some things which are always true
And cannot change for you or me.

“So, you go your way and I’ll go mine
And perhaps within the space of time
You will one day confront the truth
That some things are absolute.”

And so the two men parted ways
Each one to his own life
Neither one to meet again
On such a moonlit night.

But one day both men came to their lives’ end
As all men finally do
There are no two ways to think of that
It’s positively true.

For to every man there comes a time
When what he thinks meets up with truth
And he finds he cannot change the fact
Some things are absolute.

© 2003 Rachel Whelan
From "The Stone Boy and Other Selected Stories" by Rachel Whelan