Jessica Poli
Hunter’s Moon
While the sun goes down over the lake,
I can still taste the moon
that we watched last night from the car—
how it hovered, metallic,
over traffic lights and box stores.
The geese move slowly across the water.
I’m trying to think about anything
other than the dream that I had
after I left you at your house.
In it, the moon was a coin
that you placed in my mouth
before pressing your lips against mine.
A killdeer skirts the weeds along the shore—
the first one I’ve seen in this land-locked state.
The water purples. People
begin leaving, their headlights
falling along the grass where I sit.
Alone, I pull the moon out
from under my tongue
and place it in the grass, an offering.
Jessica Poli reads “Hunter’s Moon”
Jessica Poli is the author of four chapbooks and co-editor of the collection More in Time: A Tribute to Ted Kooser (University of Nebraska Press, 2021). Her work has appeared in Best New Poets, Southern Indiana Review, The Adroit Journal, and Redivider, among other places. She is a PhD student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, founder and editor of Birdfeast, and Assistant Poetry Editor of Prairie Schooner.