Prayer to the Virgin Moon

In another world, I was born to die.

What a resilient bird love is.

I found the dove broken on my porch,

no heartbeat left in her tiny frame;

after all, loneliness has a gentle touch.

I made her final bed in a shoebox,

Safe in shady soil under bright hyacinths.

I left the window open as I slept

in case her spirit needed haven,

and I was never one to mind the cold.

I thought we didn’t go in dreams, yet

I woke up with hollow bones.

It was another one of those nights

where I’d die to be anyone else,

so I blamed the ache on hormones or

a lack of sleep, and ignored how it felt

To be eighteen years and still unknown.

Peace wasn’t meant for people like us.

At least that’s what I said to distract

from bones ripping through skin.

I called for Hades to relieve me,

Swore I’d take damnation over this.

An hour-and-a-half, a whole

bottle of acetaminophen later,

I had the body of a dove. I had wings.

What other first instinct than to jump?

Call me Icarus, Achilles on the edge,

But a life without freedom—

well, you know what Sappho would say,

Every good prayer is meant for the moon.

So I jumped, and for once in my life,

My ankles didn’t break on the ground.

How unholy a revelation you were,

silver-faced patron of a lost girl.

Who gave you the right to leave me like this?

You of all gods should know

Bird bones are a pitiful souvenir.

They say Pluto isn’t a planet anymore.

Tell that to the tomb where I buried a fallen star,

tell that to her ghost. Artemis, wild moon,

say you hear me, say the legends aren’t true.

Say there’s a love for me, and her name isn’t Orion.

Tell me I’m your child, tell me it is human

to be swayed by your tides. This fate is like the myths,

and that scares me. Celestial huntress,

Aphrodite never ruled me the way you do.

So if I must be struck Earthwards tonight,

Let it be by your arrow, let my blood

be a brilliant constellation for sailors

who awake in the night with wings.

If this mortal body is a worthy sacrifice,

Let my sisters speak the language of the skies.