DOTTY LEMIEUX
★ ★ ★ ★
POETRY
Image by Engin Akyurt
Sister Moon
Born under the sign of the moon,
my face as pocked-marked,
as splotched and undefinable
In junior high school when
it mattered
I wanted to wear the veil
of the penitent
My sister, the actual moon,
is the pretty one
her pitted skin character-filled
mysterious
holding secrets
men can’t wait to breach
Mine just a red boiling mess
Boys take one look and don’t even
try to cover their snot-filled
snickers in the hallways,
nudging each other
and their smooth skinned
cheerleader girlfriends
No one ever says “pizza face”
But I heard their thoughts
on the celestial channel
My compensation for
not knowing the call letters
of the earthly frequency
My mother’s soothing words
and foul-smelling potions
can’t hide the truth
Ugly sister
Plain sister
But the moon and I commune
at night under the covers
the way sisters do
soothe each other, she worries
about disappearing every month,
fading away, what if she never returns?
We plot our escape together
the moon and I
When it is her time to hide and mine
to stay behind, tonight,
we will fly away,
past Saturn’s blingy rings
Jupiter’s big red lip
brighter than a thousand suns
swinging round the universe
streaming to pierce the veil
of Creation
our two halves
whole
and luminous
as a nebula.
Dotty LeMieux is the author of four chapbooks, Five Angels, Five Trees Press; Let Us Not Blame Foolish Women, Tombouctou Books; The Land, Smithereens Press, and most recently Henceforth I Ask Not Good Fortune from Finishing Line Press, and was the editor of the literary journal Turkey Buzzard Review. Her work has appeared in numerous print and online journals and anthologies. She lives in Northern California, where she practices environmental law and helps elect progressive candidates to office. You may read more at her blog: dottylemieuxpoemsandmore.com
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What a wonderfulpoem! I enjoyed reading it very much.
Great poem! I enjoyed reading it very much