Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MOON, by KAREN SWENSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MOON, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Their footprints on her face
Last Line: For women are, after all, only space.
Subject(s): Earth; Snow; Women; World


Their footprints on her face -
you could tell they enjoyed marking her up.

I have seen my son the same,
a joy of sloshing galoshes
across a brisk sheen of new snow.

It's something in the male;
they can't stand just openness.

They have to put things into it -
a flag, a rocket, a foot,
any signature of their spore.

Being female, I felt sorry for her.
Not that it will make any difference

to lovers and harvests and I do realize
we may need her some day, a stepping stone
for some new hypocrisy of hope

as we put distance between ourselves
and our latest botch of civilization.

But did the deflowering have to
be so public? Did we have to wave
the bloodied sheet? Columbus was kinder.

This is a very female point of view,
I realize, foolish, even sentimental.

But it hurt, woman to woman,
to see their footprints on her face,
for women are, after all, only space.





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