Serving House: A Journal of Literary Arts
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Poem
SHJ Issue 15
Fall 2016

When the Moon Loses Five Hundred Degrees

by Tamra Plotnick

is it milk drinking ink
or ink
drinking the moon

for whom else
shines the moon		a few
loose souls
fallen like change
out the pockets
of the earth
clocking
our own oblivious
shadow
sour-faced
newyorker every newcomer
pucker-eyed
did you see
the eclipse?

 

SHJ Issue 15
Fall 2016

Tamra Plotnick’s

poetry and prose works have been published in several journals and anthologies, including: Lurch; The Waiting Room Reader, Vol II: Words to Keep You Company, edited by Rachel Hadas; and Global City Review: International Edition. She has studied with Grace Paley, Russell Banks, E. M. Broner, Cheryl Clarke, and Barry Wallenstein.

After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, she traveled in Spain and Latin America. She earned a master’s degree in creative writing from the City College of New York, where she won the New York Times fellowship. Later, she completed another master’s degree, in education, and transitioned to teaching at-risk high school students in New York City.

Over the years she has maintained a strong involvement in the arts. She has danced, performed her poetry, and acted in bilingual theater. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, son, and daughter.

“...we have been born here to witness and celebrate. We wonder at our purpose for living. Our purpose
is to perceive the fantastic. Why have a universe if there is no audience?” — Ray Bradbury