the other’s begun to live
in her dreams. The fact is, the eclipse
was a miracle we didn’t ask for.
I used to believe there was salvation
in the ocean.
Now, when the sun sets,
I worry I’ll become the moon.
So I wipe the baby’s bottom
& tell my daughters
the tides have no hold on us.
I tell them
we’ll be safe tonight.
After the eclipse,
my sleepless daughter told me the moon
left a trail of blood across the sea.
I can feel myself bleed
if I think about it.
*“One daughter can’t sleep” was inspired by An Arsenal of Mysteries: The Terrifying Allure of a Remote Caribbean Island by Carina del Valle Schorske. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/20/magazine/mona-island-puerto-rico.html
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 27, Issue 6.
rose auslander lives on Cape Cod. She is the author of the book Wild Water Child was the winner of the 2016 Bass River Press Poetry Contest, was a finalist for the 2024 Four Way Press Levis Prize in Poetry, and the 2024 Two Sylvias Press Wilder Prize. Her poems have appeared in the Berkeley Poetry Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, Hunger Mountain, New Ohio Review, LEON, RHINO, and many others.See all items about rose auslander
