Blood Moon
For Elaine
I imbibe with my aunt.
Panamanian rum teased bubbly with diet Dr. Pepper
I shore off the callus of day,
sip at the late summer full moon
I imagine the color of a cancer cell
pink & shimmering like a newborn star
a tiny sun chewing at the beating heart
of a woman I just met, but is family
we drink the night before my cousin’s wedding
the last time we are all gathered alive
we get so twisted up with joy & terror
Elaine roars in every face we pass
“Fuck you in the face!” a rum grin.
An atom is its own rib. The bloated moon
smiles like a drunk relative. I get a little
embarrassed walking her home. But she’s fun.
After the wedding I never see her again.
Alex Vigue
Alex Vigue is a queer writer from Vancouver, WA. He has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Western Washington University and has been recently published in Moss, Foglifter, and Rust + Moth. His debut chapbook “The Myth of Man” was published by Floating Bridge Press and his micro-chap "Lay Waste" was published by Ghost City Press. Alex is the founding editor of Day Job Journal.
Here’s why Taylor loved it:
On the surface, you have this basically straightforward narrative of a party, of meeting someone at a party and loving them immediately, but every once in a while this poem slips into elegiac musings that remind the reader that love and life are fleeting.
The line "I imagine the color of a cancer cell/pink & shimmering like a newborn star" is one that will stay with me for a very long time. (On a personal note, my grandmother is currently battling cancer and this poem did make me emotional which just goes to show writing to my personal experience apparently goes a long way).
Not to mention, in a relatively short poem, Vigue manages to hold humor and tragedy all at once. I think the way it captures how the body, when it starts to fail, allows its soul to become less tethered, and more open to honest expressions of love and fear, and very fairly, anger. The ending incomplete couplet is just…what a feeling that moment gives to readers. How it shows our lives are always a little bit more incomplete when we lose the ones we love.
Interview:
I really loved that image of cancer cells as pink and shimmering in your poem. Tell us where that came from or share some of the stories behind the most important imagery of the poem.
In my life and in my writing I try to look at things from an objective angle or find beauty in things that are truly horrific. Breast cancer took both my aunts in a short span. It is something that holds tremendous grief and fear for my family. I wanted to imagine what something so small and destructive might look like up close. I don't know if it helps take some of the pain away but it felt like a kindness to offer grace to a force of annihilation. I also wanted to keep the poem celestial. My aunt, even though I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her, was a force of nature! It's an ode to all of her, even that part of her body that killed her.
What song(s) do you think most represent your work? Or what did you listen to while writing this poem?
This poem is directly inspired by the song Blood Moon by Josiah and the Bonnevilles. Josiah's lyrics are beautiful and his music helps me feel connected to a genre of music that I struggled to relate to for a long time. Both Josiah's song and my poem confront a relationship with alcohol. Something that can bring such joy and companionship but also leave you abandoned at the end of a night. He also begs for more time with someone, settling for being told a lie to sate his loneliness.
Why did you choose Team Taylor?
I chose Taylor because I click so much with her taste artistically. I'm obsessed with verbing nouns! While I don't always write about the body it is always near my poems. When I can't think of a line I hold my chest and imagine the words as a feeling inside me. I also deeply wish I had a way to connect with god like when I was a child before fear became the driving force in most of my religious interactions.
I miss the intimacy I had between god and me. I wish god had never been used as a weapon against me.