about the author
Jessica Morey-Collins is an MFA student at the University of New Orleans, where she works as associate poetry editor for Bayou Magazine. She
received a scholarship to study at the NYS Summer Writer’s Institute and was a finalist for the 4th Annual Gigantic Sequins Poetry Contest. Her poems and nonfiction can be found or are forthcoming in Pleiades, Vinyl Poetry, ILK Journal, Superstition Review, The Boiler Journal, Animal Literary Journal, and elsewhere. She blogs on craft for the North American Review.
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Wax/Wane
Jessica Morey-Collins
Moths migrate
toward the false moons
of the human habitat. Once, you asked
hadn’t I had
enough.
But for that decade,
turning cheek from the imperative to fuck
was too much
for me. I thought
I heard this call
to prayer. You got in
the habit of taking
the stairs
two at a time.
We held hands. Our wrists
didn’t inosculate,
but the moon’s hum
drew our fluids
through showy loops. I reached for you.
My fingertips smoked
against a light bulb.