Transition: Poems in the Afterglow | 11 11 20 | Marjorie Moorhead

Marjorie Moorhead
Presumptive Winners

For this one   moment
exhale, let
the breath of hope float
on air of gratitude
to the universe

that just in this   moment
we can know
a fascist state has been rejected;
a dangerously-unhinged man
and his pathetic crew
will be ejected.
A woman of color given her seat of power;
anointed agent of change.
This   moment   we heard
an elected leader speak of better
angels and dismantling systemic
hatred.

Take this   moment,
inhale palpable joy,
relief and hope.
In tomorrow’s moments,
fear floods back; struggles
remain.
So many struggles.
But, for this one   moment…

—Submitted on 11/08/2020

Marjorie Moorhead is the author of the chapbooks Survival: Trees, Tides, Song (Finishing Line Press 2019), and Survival Part 2: Trees, Birds, Ocean, Bees (Duck Lake Books 2020). Her poems have appeared in Sheila-Na-GigPorter House ReviewVerse-VirtualRising Phoenix ReviewAmethyst Review, and other journals, as well as in several anthologies, including most recently Covid Spring (Hobblebush Books, 2020). 

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