If the moon was our child, I’d name her
after my mother and tell her about the mountains
near our home and the revolution that must be
worth having. You see,
I get sick thinking about all the ways to love
because love makes me hungry for socialism
and socialism makes me hungry for revolution.
And the revolution can’t be nonviolent
or simple or quick — it is long and defined
by every revolt that leads to its birth. The conception of freedom
rises and breaks in the same way you,
lover, spread over me open as the sky.
I know our children are innocent,
but our moon-child will know that I’d kill and burn
to release us. She will know that I do this
out of love. It has always been
love that drives change
and love that at collapse, remains the same.
Jessica McDermott is a fifth-generation Idahoan who is heavily influenced by place and nature. She received her MFA in creative nonfiction writing from the University of Idaho in 2016. Along with writing poetry, she has written on environmental and political issues, and in 2018, she was a monthly guest writer for Our Positive Planet. Currently, she coordinates writing tutoring and lives in Denver, Colorado.