The Smaller World

I left work yesterday as the sun was setting.
The sky was still full of light, but the earth was in deepening shade.

High up and a bit to the east, soared the Moon.
Half lit, half dark, as it always is,
though we usually see more of the darkness, or more of the light.

I'm still training my mind to understand
the complicated spatial relationships of Sun, Earth and Moon.

I still sense the Sun in evening as being in a different place
than in morning,
as if it has moved.

But I can visualize the source of this illusion
as I visualize my place on the spinning globe.
The Sun appears to move out of sight
as my spot on Earth turns away.

In the morning the room lightened slowly
as I lay in bed.
Then, a sudden surge in the light
as Earth turned back into the streaming field of photons.

How short a time it takes for Earth to spin
from evening to morning.
It made the world seem much smaller.