Poem-a-Day - "The Moon Is in Labor" by Gail Wronsky

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March 24, 2023 

The Moon Is in Labor

Gail Wronsky

At least she’s pretending to be,

in sisterly solidarity.

It’s not a joke, but the whole

world’s taking it badly. Meanwhile

I sit here pretending to be a flame 

in a thrown bottle. I pretend

that curved horns grow out of my ears 

when I hear of injustices. And 

meanwhile like the faint cigar 

lights of the darkened 

lounges where world leaders 

fraternize, the moon’s light glows

then fades. Her labor proves to be, 

well, laborious. Mine was too,

although this poem burst forth 

from my brain like a boot

or a god: furious.

Copyright © 2023 by Gail Wronsky. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on March 24, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“This poem began on a night when I was feeling particularly powerless—as a woman, as a poet—when I felt I wasn’t creating anything that would make the world more just. Then I looked at the full moon and saw her as a pregnant woman: full of creative power and potential. This vision made me imagine myself as an activist (‘a flame / in a thrown bottle’) while imagining our leaders hiding behind cigar smoke. In the end, I don’t know whether the moon will give birth to something miraculous. But I’ve given birth—to the poem, to a more radical voice.”
—Gail Wronsky

Gail Wronsky

Gail Wronsky is the author of The Stranger You Are (Tia Chucha Press, 2022) and Under the Capsized Boat We Fly (White Pine Press, 2021). The recipient of an Individual Artists Fellowship from the California Arts Council, she lives on Tongva land in Los Angeles.

The Stranger You Are

The Stranger You Are
(Tia Chucha Press, 2022)
 

 

“Anti-Chlorinated Feminism” by Rosemarie Dombrowski
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“Long Night Full Moon” by D. A. Powell
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Thanks to Diane Seuss, author of frank: sonnets (Graywolf Press, 2021), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read or listen to a Q&A about Seuss’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year.
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