i love you to the moon &
not back, let’s not come back, let’s go by the speed of  
queer zest & stay up  
there & get ourselves a little  
moon cottage (so pretty), then start a moon garden  
with lots of moon veggies (so healthy), i mean  
i was already moonlighting  
as an online moonologist  
most weekends, so this is the immensely  
logical next step, are you  
packing your bags yet, don’t forget your  
sailor moon jean jacket, let’s wear  
our sailor moon jean jackets while twirling in that lighter,  
queerer moon gravity, let’s love each other  
(so good) on the moon, let’s love  
the moon        
on the moon 
Copyright © 2021 by Chen Chen. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 31, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.
“I love the moon. I love love. And I’m always thinking about these idiomatic expressions which become cliched over time, but when you really think about them, they’re mysterious—enigmatic expressions. I wanted to give back to this piece of language some of its giddy mystery. To say ‘I love you’ is at once everyday and extraordinary, like the glorious fact of the moon.”
—Chen Chen