Catherine Wing
The Luna Moth Proposes Long and Loud to the Moon
Darling, you are the foil from the firefly’s eye
the light shooting from the light organ,
the tangle in a tangleweed sea, you are
the breath of milk filtering down
the luminaria, a blotch of glitter
against the sun, a shadow’s shadowy light.
Your every green has my every eye.
I’m at a six-month tide and your pull
might swallow my stream and feather.
I’m just a filament flickering on a wheel
but I’m spun sideways. Don’t lid your eyes
or dim your bauble. Breathe your moon song
on me. Collude with me a bit and together
let us lie down at the pink margins of the day
and make our egg laying in the twilight
of our common southern spring.
Catherine Wing is the author of two collections of poetry, Enter Invisible and Gin & Bleach. Her poems have been published in such journals as Poetry, The Nation, and The New Republic, featured on The Writer’s Almanac, and included in Best American Erotic Poems and Best American Poetry. She teaches at Kent State University and with the NEOMFA and is honored to be a recipient of a 2026 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award.