This month's Moon Prize, the 128th, goes to Brooke Herter James's thoughtful poem "I Talk to Myself After Turning Off the Evening News."

 

 

I Talk to Myself After Turning Off the Evening News

by Brooke Herter James

 
The war will end. In the spring 
the wild plums will blossom. 
The bees will return. Next fall, 
the olives will need harvesting
once more. But the boy in the street,  
pulling his suitcase behind him?
He will find his way to a place
with a bed and a window and someone
who will close the window when it’s cold.
But he is all alone. You don’t know.
Maybe his mother is just out of sight. 
I am a mother. I see his face. I know.


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Brooke Herter James is the author of several poetry chapbooks and one children’s picture book. She lives in Vermont with her husband, two donkeys, a mess of chickens and a dog.