28 The Meadow Phases of the Moon Charlie Stookey The new moon is a cat’s claw in the night sky. Clint C. Ricketts Beneath Thunder Moons and Corn Moons, she names her four rescued cats, Moon Beam, Moon Light, Moon Shadow, and, of course, Moon Shine. The phases of the moon are tattooed on the nape of her neck “to honor the mystery and permanence of the moon over time. It’s reliable.” It’s so easy to turn the course of her disease into the curse of the disease with its hungry ghosts. No glass Japanese floats lie atop the scarred nightstand but earrings, ER receipts, doubts, matches, butt ends of relationships. She regrets the drunken, meth-fueled fights with her husband, who later committed suicide. “Killed himself over...whatever. Me, all that lottery money, heartache, whatever.” Moonlight creek sings to Cottonwoods in the darkness. Grief waxes and wanes. When loneliness strikes, she writes lamentations: Full October moon Drowns pinpoint constellations.
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