photo by Nilanka Sampath
She holds a note, loud,
more a shout than a note, stretches
her little voice over the room
like the blanket I tuck in the crib
around her, nods her head with
each stop and pause, waits
for a word she knows, something
like girl and dress and baby. My
baby. My god. This song,
welling itself—I am
so imperfect, so seeping
and bloated, but this
song is ours.
Sara Moore Wagner is the recipient of a 2019 Sustainable Arts Foundation award, and the author of the chapbooks Tumbling After (forthcoming from Red Bird Chapbooks, 2022) and Hooked Through (2017). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals including Beloit Poetry Journal, Rhino, Sixth Finch, Waxwing, The Cincinnati Review, and Nimrod, among others. She has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart prize and Best of the Net. Find her at www.saramoorewagner.com.
