First New Moon Planting

The sky hangs pearled, opaque curtain
woe held at bay. I dodge between practicing
faith one minute, ignoring the unseen
the next. How else to navigate the dark--
hilled beneath the white that pours past
my view, plant a field cradled in my palm,
spilling across lifelines.

Tonight the moon breaks free from darkness.
Today, I carry another season; stained canvas bag
in hand, ushering in spring with envelopes full
of seeds, marked with exotic names like galactica,
perfection, merveille, lined up in battered cartons,

grain traced to ancestors,
specks bequeathed as wedding gifts,
embryos stowawayed on backs
of bovine, matted on sheep, eyes mad
by the long voyage over seas that lurch.

Puncturing snow, my footprints bruise
a mud path to the plastic greenhouse
where I choose to birth thousands,
knowing what it is to set the almost-
invisible in place, cover, water, watch,
wait on the earth, heavy with promise
of seeds unfurling.

Lisa Wujnovich wrote, illustrated, and sewed her first book in second grade, How the Rabbit Got Long Ears, the story of an exceptional rabbit in a popcorn patch. She is the author of This Place Called Us, a collection of poetry reflecting the perspective of a farmer who crawls on her hands and knees on a regular basis for twenty years.

She holds a BA in drama from Antioch College and numerous herbal certifications. Of all her acting roles, she is most proud of her one-woman masked cabaret show, Ragged Panties. She is forever grateful for her apprenticeship with tovil dancer (healing dancer) G.S. Daharmesana in Galle, Sri Lanka. She has been a participant at the Catskill Poetry Workshop for three years and studies poetry at Binghamton University. She has been accepted to New England College’s MFA Poetry Program for Winter 2008.