The Scrubbed and Simple Moon

Watchless, wordless, compassless.
Isn’t that when mountains open
and light roars through,
as when in the delivery room,
slammed by a lot of meaningless
brightness, you cried and were held and forgot?
In your nursery, did you reach for the moon?
Many babies do. Moon, your mother said,
and soon enough you were grown.

Read more NATO Is Going Strong, Actually

This poem appears in the August 2026 print edition.