Total Eclipse, April 2024

Issue 15 | Winter 2025 | Jen Hallaman

 

                           for Daphne and the sun

our daughter is the moon washing sunbeams
brighter than white / our daughter will be our
two-hundredth light-drenched afternoon / remember that
four-leaf clover i plucked from the lawn, god,
you / & your magnetism for all unlikely
natural wonders / our daughter will be our first /
swarm of north georgia butterflies / my only
shooting star / the three white-tailed deer
idling in our backyard / the other morning /
on the fridge, one picture of our baby in my belly
two-toned and grainy like / this april
filtered grayscale by / today’s celestial spectacle
you see / the sun is just /
a hollow ring of black light / mumbling promises
to the dusky moon / i will not be my father /
& you will not be your mother /
our baby will be sweet and common
as this / four-minute apocalypse /
our baby will be blue & green & yellow /
she’ll be you & me / ten springs past /
find me another four-leaf clover /
make a wish / on your thousandth shooting star /
tell me we aren’t godtouched /
one last time