Route One north of Portland has some long dark stretches at night, interrupted only by the head and tail lights of other cars and the occasional streetlight or intermittent sign. Then a car dealership will appear, packed with shining cars gleaming under dozens of lights. Or the overlit oasis of a gas station/convenience store, the kind you can always count on to be open no matter how late. Or the night will be punctuated by that "oh my god" moment when you crest a hill and glimpse the recently full moon rising low, orange, and huge--a giant potato of a moon--that puts all the other distractions to shame.

There it is again--
enormous moon, low, rising,
outshining all else.