Tuesday poem #535 : Lori Anderson Moseman : counted as constellation

 

 

after we perfect the daisy chain
after the whistle calls us off the grass
after the old hag takes to the chalkboard
to enter numbers
to mark the beginning of the year of scolding
we learn to count all petals as a set

each daisy in my hand becomes a coin
a currency—flower power’s protest song—
no longer lone chance or a dumb duel
(not he-loves-me | he-loves-me-not)

suddenly I can walk
fearless in front of the class
sing off-key with “no sense of pitch”
each note a daughter I will never have
their party gowns spinning out past Pluto

out past our town’s planetarium
I run freely amid cattle each dusk
our hillside indistinguishable from the next
our kitchen light just another star
all gamma ray, I out-pace astronauts
part cosmos, I parse cosmos

 

 

 

Lori Anderson Moseman’s latest poetry collections include Darn (Delete Press, 2021) and Y (Operating System, 2019). Two chapbooks, Okay? and Too Many Words, came out from above/ground press in 2023. Quietly Between, a pandemic collaboration with Megan Kaminski, Brad Vogler, and Sarah Green is available from A Viewing Space. See https://loriandersonmoseman.com

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan