Because the moon is moving away

 

from Earth 1.5 inches each year

I know someday this will all be over.

 

The churning of the tide will soften

as her reliable waxing and waning

 

disappears. Infinite gravity governs

absolutely. Each action yields equal

 

and opposite reactions causing continents

to shift. Tectonic plates push and pull

 

their godlike weight in tug-of-war.

I agree to a road trip with my daughter.

 

She says there’s a place she trusts

to get the job done right. The notion

 

of getting a second earlobe piercing

makes me wince. To put my faith

 

in a stranger’s hands feels like an act

that goes against nature. My body

 

is void of ink. I haven’t ever gathered

fortitude enough for that commitment.

 

Nothing lasts a lifetime.

School. Friendships. Lovers.

 

Houses. Cars. Careers. Plates shift

inch by inch, seasons change.

 

Impermanence has become

a permanent fixture of my faith,

 

trusted as the sunrise each day.

But my daughter has also become

 

a trusted friend. Engaging in this act

of exposition honors that, however small

 

a show of hope that what has been born

of my body and raised by my hand

 

can withstand natural forces of change.

When the needle goes through my ear

 

that brief pinch of pain, I’ll say a prayer

to the moon.

 

Please don’t leave.

 

Shyla Shehan

Shyla Ann Shehan is an analytical Virgo from the US Midwest. She holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska, where she received an Academy of American Poets Prize. Her work has been featured in The Pinch, Moon City Review, Midwest Quarterly, Anti-Heroin Chic, Drunk Monkeys, and elsewhere, and her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She is the co-founder and curator of The Good Life Review and lives in Omaha. For more, please visit shylashehan.com.