Freedom Poetry Voices

There was that time I looked at the front door screen and saw

the luna moth^[1]

Spreading her luxurious wings, they were mossy green

Taking up all the space: Nails scratching on metal: Moons on its wings.

I let myself go completely because I was a wild being rambling about all of it:

Railing about the other moth who flies off

and chooses not to be shamed any longer^[2]

I fought and fought: I was born to rebel.

Apologies for plaudits, but no apologies to a Poet Laureate?

I use the Laureates’ words without embarrassment because it’s a project.

Did you tell your son you never apologize: When you set off on that creek in your kayak

with him: Watching from the bank?

Sometimes it’s the bravest thing to say, “sorry.”

Lost in the wash of light, I let go^[3]

I put myself flat on the ground and looked up.

This ain’t the ‘60s—was I dead for awhile?^[4]

Yet: the moths flew so close to the bulb: then out to the open sky: to the wan light: and I was left

Wondering: what is the zenith of happiness:

To catch a peak. Look:^[5]

Loving and trying new things like gulping down my pride:

The water of the river rushing past like boiling lava:

Each oar slicing the water: The luna moth still rising

until exhaustion, like a red giant swallowing^[6]

“It’s ok, I’m used to old people not used to technology.”

In the moment, there was the impulse to not lose anything but gain years, months,

and a second’s gain, to look at new geraniums^[7]

The geranium was bloody ruby, dripping and swallowing me up.

Because it was the blood of children dying: Of women crying out:

“No, no, no, no, no!”

Not sure my rebelliousness matters: oblige I must: game recognizes game.

The rules bind me.

“Oh, God!”

Yet, they set me loose: Freedom.

I fly freely, greenly, soaring: observing all of it!

© Nadine Alexis Bolkhovitinov

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^[1] Henry Hart, from Anniversary in the Lookout Tower, in Blackbird, 2019, v. 18, no. 1.

^[2] Dr. Luisa A. Igloria, from Orchard, in Maps for Migrants and Ghosts, 2020.

^[3] Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, from In the Comfort of Light, in The Polaris Trilogy: Poems for the Moon, 2023. 

^[4] Tim Seibles, from Dead Awhile Blues Villanelle on Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, 2022.

^[5] Dr. Mattie Q. Smith, from To Be Caught on Collapsing Currents, The Weekly Avocet #688 for Winter Themed Poems, 2026.

^[6] Ron Smith, from Equinox, in Style Weekly, https://sw.wxp.io/equinox-by-ron-smith/, 2025. Dr. Sofia M. Starnes, from Last. Child. Last. Child, in The Consequence of Moonlight, Paraclete Press, 2018.

^[7] Dr. Sofia M. Starnes, from Last. Child. Last. Child, in The Consequence of Moonlight, Paraclete Press, 2018.