When my daughter chases a moth and demands its name, I say, moth.
Orange and white stripes, wings wrapped tight. Black lace moth.
It isn’t enough. Okay, I say, looking it up: ailanthus moth.
Typically tropical. Found in colder places now, I explain about the moth.
Tiny on her fingertip, almost unnoticeable. How a teacher once named me quiet as a moth.
How years ago, at a bar, fluttering like a bird aglow: the jade moth.
Creature I had never seen, yet somehow knew by name: Luna moth.
How, like a child, I made everyone notice. All attention briefly trained on the moth.
How my daughter sees without being taught. The quiet radiance of a moth.
Emily Patterson
Emily Patterson (she/her) is the author of The Birth of Undoing (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2025). Her poetry appears in journals such as North American Review, SWWIM, Stirring, The Penn Review, Christian Century, and CALYX, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best Spiritual Literature. In 2025, she received third prize in the Women of Ohio poetry competition. Emily spent her childhood in Northeast Ohio and now lives in Columbus with her family, where she is a curriculum designer with Highlights for Children. Read more at emilypattersonpoet.com.
