Did you know? & Moonbeams
Did you know?
She asks, fevered, rambling, the government gathered a team of scientists to send their military to another dimension on a boat, only to get them stuck in the walls, half in, half out? I picture floorboards with eyes and screams wood muffled. And now, she pushes forward, great swath of information impatient to roll off the tongue, we know that every single thought ever had exists in another timeline—birds fly upside down and backwards, humans get swept in from the ocean floor in nets by dolphins manning boats simply because I have just said so. I’m still trying to imagine dolphins on legs, unable to realize I’m about to become complicit in creating momma’s dream. She smiles like she knows a shared thought holds more power than one simply held inside, Did you know we’ve cloned sheep? She leans in, and snakes inherently hold all the memories of their ancestors? And you, since you are my daughter, are me again. Do you remember my grandfather? How he could heal people with just his hands? Or my first great love, from Venezuela? Her eyes focus somewhere over my head, far off.
Moonbeams
The moon has power
if you surrender to its tides.
Go out at night, let the light
guide you to the oldest tree,
sit cross-legged, feel the grass
tickle your thighs.
Call out to the deity
you feel rolling in your bowels,
rushing up like heartburn.
Remember: you must give back
what you borrow.
Your momma fought workplace needles
and blackened spoons—
a walking 90’s McDonald’s
ball pit warning sign—
unable to ignore unabated knocking
and the throb of an overworked muscle.
A whisper in the night:
Even the moon gives in
to cyclical repose.
Leaving you begging
under Louisiana willows
to refill your goblet with Lisa Frank stickers
and the pages of your dog-eared dinosaur
encyclopedia—K-Mart treasures
you almost remember holding.
Mea Andrews is a writer from Georgia, who currently resides in Shenzhen. She has just finished her MFA from Lindenwood University and is only recently back on the publication scene. You can find her in Gordon Square Review, Rappahannock Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Potomac Review, and others. She was a 2022 Pushcart prize nominee, and you can also follow her on Instagram @mea_writes or go to her website at meaandrews.com. She has two chapbooks and poetry collections available for publication, should anyone be interested.