This Moment - Julian Perry

This Moment

Eavan Boland

A neighbourhood.
At dusk.

Things are getting ready
to happen
out of sight.

Stars and moths.
And rinds slanting around fruit.

But not yet.

One tree is black.
One window is yellow as butter.

A woman leans down to catch a child
who has run into her arms
this moment.

Stars rise.
Moths flutter.
Apples sweeten in the dark.

Boland, Eavan. "This Moment." Poetry 180. N.p., 1994. Web. 11 Sept. 2014. 

This Moment by Eavan Boland is a short poem about exactly what it should seem to be about: a single moment. The day has gone by, the sun passing over the hills and leaving a neighborhood in dusk. Surely this could be written about the author's own neighborhood, but the poem itself is universally thematic. Even though things are quieting down in this town, as day turns to night, new "things are getting ready to happen." Life doesn't simply shut down with change (day to night); it adapts and quite impartially moves on. 
I have always been intrigued by life's fluidity, and how quickly change can come about. But a change in one's circumstances can be a scary thing, and sometimes requires a change in outlook. I'm a worrier, and this poem, for me, frames the idea of change (a concept that worriers love to hate) in a brighter light than I usually shine. Sure, change is always in the works, "but not yet" is that change here so for now it might be nice to take a moment to relax and appreciate where we are, as well as what we have. One moment at a time.