New Writers Poetry Competition 2023 – 3rd Place
A Trans Guide to Pinning Luna Moths
by Cecilia Mary Morris
Start with light dish insects then thigh which are not so different Plath on garden’s metal-top table pocked dents & steel pimples seed flowers & killing jars She mouths This? Here? tossing up mothballs Sanitize where pen punches a period hole tape cup under chin catch the sentences snaking out of absence a burning haibun Accept what you would give up for your body Accept all donations people pity moth-pinners Make a ritual once a week pierce thigh wake months later dusted key-lime scales Learn to be a new creature Understand that this is painful for all of us Stand naked in the mirror take many pictures send them to strangers they tell you how they want to pin you down Learn the moth at arm's length swallows sun becomes reluminous wings crumple placed through your mouth Learn that needles are drawn moths Begin with eye contact all the moth sees closed & golden parting coins bearing willows undressing by the river letting loose all those turmeric tongues drinking sunlight often dimming
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