Drinking the Magnolia Moon

After Wenyi Zhu’s “Magnolia Moon”

It was I, Daughter of the Stars,

who plucked the milk moon from the earl gray sky,

brewed a new cup with her magnolia petals,

stirred to life with my spines.

Her steam is sweet to breathe,

Sakura spirits caressing the blue craters of my eyes,

blushing my pale sick skin.

Sweeter to sip,

as she weeps bright tears upon my lips,

soft spins silk upon my tongue.

She makes me smile,

wraps me in the warmth of her halo,

fills my belly with the promise of life.

You’ll never know coldness,

or darkness,

or starvation

again.

My child,

you’ll never know.

I smile,

and I smile,

And the moon bleeds black

and smiles back

as the world fades to purple dust.