April Moon
The moon tonight is closer to us
than it will be
for the rest of the year,
grace willing, the year
we will remember as the Great Pandemic.
Pulling us closer into its orbit,
shining the light of its fullness into the room,
we turn to hold in our hands
each other’s face as if
for the first time,
and the last—
Pink Moon, Egg Moon, Moon of New Grass.
Copyright © 2022 by Cathy Song. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on January 3, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Fear was a prominent emotion during the early days of the coronavirus when there was so much about it we didn’t know. In April of 2020 the full moon was particularly beautiful and, upon seeing it one night—knowing death could very well be imminent—I felt fear give way to acceptance.”
—Cathy Song
Cathy Song
Cathy Song is the author of the short story collection All the Love in the World (Bamboo Ridge Press, 2020), as well as the poetry collections Cloud Moving Hands (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007) and Picture Bride (Yale University Press, 1983).