LUISA MURADYAN

Luisa Muradyan is originally from Odesa, Ukraine and is the author of I Make Jokes When I'm Devastated (Bridwell Press, 2025) When the World Stopped Touching (YesYes Books, 2027), and American Radiance (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). She is the winner of the 2017 Raz/ Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize and a member of the Cheburashka Collective. Additional work can be found at Best American Poetry, the Threepenny ReviewPloughshares, and the Georgia Review among others.

scientists predict that the moon was made 

when a rock smashed into the Earth 

and the more I look at my 

son’s birth photos the more I see my body

ripped open by my sun, no wait by my 

moon who invites me into the space

of his playroom and smiles

with the fullness of his face

And I guess what I’m trying to say 

is yes, I have been eclipsed by love. 

Because I need poetry to open the door to its house while I’m standing outside in the rain holding a boombox. Because language fails me so often but like the annoying couple in every rom-com we will fight but we will end up together.

December 2, 2024

December 9, 2024

November 25, 2024