Photo taken by the author on 2016 06 12 at 20:29 in the evening in Warsaw’s Mokotów, using a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT fitted with the 200mm/f2.8 L-series lens. Underexposed to show moon surface detail.

My son turned six today and the moon was a half-lit wonder, spelling out six in the language of that clock-faced master of time.

Six, in this case, is everything that came before a summer’s countdown to the first day of first grade. Six, for us, is most of the tears he’ll cry in my arms and most of the nights he has wound up in my bed. It is learning to sit, eat, walk, ride a bike, ski, read, brush teeth, and fend for himself while I have a lie-in on a Saturday. For me, in turn, six is what followed the long stretch of youth that preceded my life as I know it.

But six is just half of twelve, says the moon, as if to remind me that nothing wonderful is over.