Donna Vorreyer

HOW TO START AGAIN

Capture the moon, and keep it
tucked in the folds of your robe.

You have hidden more than this: in
small drawers, in boxes, in creases
no iron can flatten. Other have tried
but weakened at its pleading, its
insistence on returning to the sky.

Pay it no mind. You now rule all tides
and cycles, and you have learned
to be hard. Stand at the window like
a woman staring at the sea. Admire
your black handiwork.

Who cares if the night is blind,
its white eye plucked and hooded?
Swathed in fleece against your skin,
the moon births haloes at your feet.

Donna Vorreyer is the author of three chapbooks: Womb/Seed/Fruit (Finishing Line Press), Come Out, Virginia (Naked Mannekin Press), and Ordering the Hours (Maverick Duck Press). She is a poetry editor for Mixed Fruit, and her work has appeared in many journals, recently in Sweet, Linebreak, Rhino, Cider Press Review, Stirring, and Wicked Alice. Donna lives in the Chicago area where she teaches middle school and therefore often acts like she is twelve years old. "How to Start Again" is from her book, A House of Many Windows, which is available for pre-order now from Sundress Publications.