Moon tides

T'were an eclipse when the moon shone red—its besmirched white skin, veiled in red silk; it glanced upon its reflection upon the distant seas, where black waves heaved with lunar sighs, their surface shimmering with a glaze of ruby dust. 

The moon saw itself aglow, with cool red light, white and gold. "I'm more beautiful than a star" it thought, "and yet, here I am, stranded near a planet, only to come out at night, doomed to revolve alone"

And so it set on to write a letter, to the high council of stars, where it desired to be known, and accepted as one of their own. 

The moon sent out a letter on a fleeting meteor, and in a streak of light it was summoned to the high council of stars.

Confident, it strode into the spherical chamber aglow with dripping plasma, and glanced at the the three star gods, Sun, Sirius and Betelgeuse seated atop thrones of dead constellations. 

The trio gods of the high council of stars had been in power since the moon was born and it found itself eclipsed by the vastness of these giants. 

"I'm puny, and cratered, and young, but I can shine and glow" yelled the moon, "and so I beg of you, majestic stars, to let me be one of you".

The stars peered at this speck of dust and glanced each other in bewilderment at this strange request.

"My dear child" whispered Sirius in a voice more ancient than time "you're a moon, not a star. You shine because our brother lets you shine, this isn't a glow you own. Be grateful and go back to seducing the oceans and waves, as you always have since your birth".

 "No", squeaked the moon, hurt and angry. "No, I'm the light of night" it screamed, "and I shine bright, I can don several colours and seduce galaxies, just as you"

"Go back, dear satellite", spoke the sun, with a voice like frozen thunder, "go back and delight the skies, and blush for your lunar eclipse, you're not one of us".

"No, no..please, I beg you. Look, I can shine. Look, I'm red and gold", cried the moon exasperated, its tears a silver gauze on the floor"

"You're bright today, but tomorrow you will be but a sickle full of craters, a thin strand of white glow, which isn't your own, son, go back". It was Betelgeuse who murmured this time, a voice that sounded like an ancient foretelling of doom, "go back, or this dust is all that shall remain of you". 

"Then smite me lords, rip me into flakes of diamonds if you must, but know this, that I shan't leave this council as a moon", sobbed the moon, its craters running a deeper shade of red every second.

"My dear child, not many are as fortunate as you"..a wisened white dwarf walked into the plasma chambers. His flowing white beard studded with nebulas, his eyes a dense remnant of every existence, he walked slow, supporting himself on a cane made entirely of discarded planets. 

"Dear moon, you're one of a kind, there are none like you. Why aspire to be a star, whom no one can gaze on? You're the bearer of white light, the divinity of this universe". The white dwarf spoke with the calmness of creation, with an empathy that soothed the moon. 

"You have the ability to look different each day, and you can peek out in the sky during daylight. Majestic as we might be, dear child, we do not exist at night", he said, stroking his long white beard and looking down benevolently at the moon.

"Go back little one, you're a satellite, go shine white, bright, be a moon. Let the stars burn, for they're never gazed on, neither loved. You're a moon dear child, you delight the skies with your new phases, cratered faces, distant lover of the high seas, you're better than a star". 

The moon nodded with reverence, and rode back to its solar system in a flicker of light, gazing back at the oceans rippling red with its reflection.