Canción de las Mujeres: Some Uses for the Moon

for Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

The moon provides comparison: behold,
A woman staring in her mirror. Light
Is how the moon accompanies the night,
And helps to ease the loneliness. (I’m told
The moon is why a woman menstruates.)
The moon could be, if only we could reach
So high, the perfect soup that cures our needs.
In Cuba, moonlight on the sea has weight—
One ounce—against which fortunes can be measured.
The moon’s an oddity, a dried-out bone;
The moon’s my palace, and a peasant’s home.
The moon, a satin pillow filled with feathers…
The moon provides this starting place for myth,
And as we’re wandering the beach, it’s sand
On which is made a princess from a man:
The moon is climbing slowly from the mist.