Moon Smoke In the high southwest beyond the cankering oak above the third floor’s roof between chimney and branches I watch an oblate moon fidget behind wisps of smoke from the witch’s campfire. Folks are tossing dust into the coals; the smoke rises like windswept clouds. Somewhere a woman is dancing in iron-hot shoes. She is going to escape, and the bright moon fades.
This poem will appear in our Editor-in-Chief’s new collection, The Book of Stolen Images (Meadowlark Books, 2023).
Editor-in-Chief Laura Lee Washburn is the Director of Creative Writing at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, and the author of This Good Warm Place: 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition (March Street) and Watching the Contortionists (Palanquin Chapbook Prize). Her poetry has appeared in such journals as TheNewVerse.News, Carolina Quarterly, Ninth Letter, The Sun, and Valparaiso Review. Harbor Review’s chapbook prize is named in her honor. The Book of Stolen Images is in the publisher’s hands today and can be purchased from Meadowlark Books.
The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative 
Very strong, lovely poem, Laura. Resonates!
Thank you so much. It’s one of those ones you’re never quite sure how you wrote or where it came from. Thank you to the muses
Thank you!