Kayla Beth Moore
Lines Written The Week Before We Marry
Gainesville, FL, June 2020
What is left to say, except today
the yellow blooms in the prairie
are as big as dinnerplates?
Every creature here survives
as it can under the assault
of infernal sunshine.
You are ahead by several yards
watching an anhinga surface
from beneath dark water.
Above, a snail kite with missing pinions
rides a thermal, dips below it,
takes a snail, and manages a perch.
May I never count
all that I will lose
in the days ahead.
The blue of the dragonfly
shames a nearby heron
while the dinnerplates flutter madly.
What is there to say, except—
see the butterfly fighting wind
an inch above the ground?
Originally from the mountains of East Tennessee, Kayla Beth Moore is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and the MFA program at the University of Florida. She was the founding curator of the library at Grace Farms, a cultural center in New Canaan, CT. Her most recent works have appeared in Plough and Lit Magazine. She lives in Atlanta, GA, with her husband and daughter.