Dear Stars, 

I hate you. I’ve come to the ultimate conclusion that I hate you, and there’s nothing you can do to change that fact. I thought maybe it was just me being envious but the way I feel about you is nothing but pure hatred. Seething, hot, boiling rage. This feeling only grows the more I look at them. They see you in awe and amazement, like you something breathtaking. But when they see me, they feel nothing. Some fear me, some hate me, others poke fun at me. As if I’m the butt of some joke. I am always there always watching, forever yet they do not see me. But the minute you show up, once a night for mere hours, they cannot contain themselves. It is only when I merge with the sun do they finally care, our collusion in their mind is astronomical. A marvel, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Why are you all that people search for in the night sky, they don’t care about me. They care about how many stars in the sky they can count. Or if they can even see the stars. But I look at them look at you and just hate it. That smile that makes its presence known like muscle memory. The fingers that they believe point up at the stars but don’t. They call all their friends and everyone over to stare at you. And just you. Why you? 

I’ve come to the realization that I do in fact not hate you but envy you. For I wish to be adored the way you have been. Stared at and told, “I’m beautiful”. I am no ball of light to shine upon. I’m full of ridges and bumps. I am not bright. I am old and rusty, aging terribly. I have nothing left for me or even know what is next of me. Man took their first step towards me, I smiled and felt a warmth like no other. But man obtained what they needed, I served my purpose. Tossed aside and left forgotten, I don’t remember that last time I had company anymore. It has been so long. So long have I stood here alone with no one but me and my thoughts. So long I’ve thought about you, the Sun, and the others. I look around and can picture man landed one each and every planet. Planting their mark and packing their belongings to travel the next. Their next “adventure” they’d call it. I look to you a see everything I could have been. One in a many. A constellation. Something to be remembered for and lived on. Star oh star, I dreamt I was one of you. Shining up above the world so high, twinkling away.

I am not angry or jealous or envious of you, I am simply sad. Although I am closer to Earth than you, I am the furthest from it. I am no Sun, I do not provide Summer or Spring. I give not warmth or light. I only provide comfort in the dark. Sometimes I can see Earth and the people that occupy the planet. How they scurry into their little homes like mice once nightfall. Maybe it is not envy, or jealousy I feel towards you but sadness of myself. I cannot provide what humans so desperately need, I feel useless. Forever locked in the endless void of space with the sole purpose of night. And even after serving my purpose for millennia I feel nothing, I’ve gained nothing. No satisfaction, no happiness. Why is that? Why can’t you exist with no role to serve but be the highlight of attention? Why is that? Why can’t I be you? Everyday I inch further and further away from the Earth. Maybe Earth doesn’t need the night. They have all that they need, the Sun and the other stars to keep them company.

I wonder why I’m even writing to you, what do I gain from this but this for one time isn’t about me. I write this letter to you in hopes of remembrance. I am something quickly forgotten but you, my friend, are not. Let this letter be my mark on the world. This helpless void of space. As I, the Moon, once stood here proudly serving my role for thousands of years. I am the Earth’s night. The first place man stepped on in the outer world.

Star, oh star, you who shines in the void. Maybe in another life, I’ll join beside you. May we twinkle the night sky away. Only then would the world be lit twice as bright.

For I was once the Moon. And you the Star.

Light and Dark. Day and Night. Together as one.

Always and forever

The Moon