POETRY

Hunter’s Moon

By Marianne Worthington     VOLUME 58 No. 1

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At the creekbed, my dog and I quit
our walk and watch the water for minnows.
Late last night, the sky was lit.

Even barred with clouds, I could knit
together the shadow shapes from my window
to my backyard when earlier we had quit

walking just to rest and watch the creek water fit
itself perfectly between banks, winnowing
the clay. Late last night, the sky lit

up across the world as bombs writ
the air with their awful script. No home,
no child is safe. At the creek, I want to quit

thinking how wars always forfeit
the innocent and nowhere in sight a hero.
Later tonight, the sky will be lit

again with a moon—a blood orange blanket--
and children will keep dying no
matter that at the creekbed my dog and I quit.
Late tonight, the sky will be lit.


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MARIANNE WORTHINGTON is the author of The Girl Singer (University Press of Kentucky, 2021), winner of the 2022 Weatherford Award for Poetry. Her work has appeared in Oxford American, CALYX, Five South, SWING, and Salvation South, among other places. She cofounded and was poetry editor of Still: The Journal, an online literary magazine publishing writers, artists, and musicians with ties to Appalachia (2009–2024). Her second book of poems, Water. Witness. Word., is forthcoming from Belle Point Press. She grew up in Knoxville, TN, and lives, writes, and teaches in southeastern Kentucky.


VOLUME 58 No. 1