Tell yourself you love this
it’s nature
why you cast off
eye mask, blackout curtains
city noise and nonsense
soft bed no nature girl needs
tonight you hear a loon
and another and another
magical in moonlight, right
moonbeams stream through tent
flaps thin as sausage casing
it’s not yet bear season, probably
loons carefree on water yelling–
you’re pretty sure that’s yelling,
for a bird– all night long
but it’s nature and you love it
so much you bring your kids
although they snore
or would if they could sleep
you are making memories
of loons and moonlight,
though not of sleep
or bears, probably
years from now the scent of pines
will evoke images of moonlight
an odd desire to strangle loons
you will say
I’ve always loved nature
—
Erin Tuthill is a Boise, ID, native whose works have appeared in The Elpis Letters (2023), Writers in the Attic – Three (2023), and MacQueen’s Quinterly Journal (2024). She and her children plant a garden each year. The children grow more steadily than the plants.
