Janet Ruth Heller

Word Count 115

For the Heaven’s Gate Cult, 1997

Crocuses open their mouths wide

to swallow sunlight

after a fierce Michigan winter.

Far away in San Diego,

thirty-nine followers

of Heaven’s Gate Cult

open their mouths

to swallow vodka and phenobarbital,

then wrap their heads in plastic bags.

Devotees believe a spaceship

will transport them to salvation.

Comet Hale-Bopp blazes

across the night sky.

Jana Pleads with the Moon

I whisper to the full moon,

“You are beautiful.”

She stares in silence.

I cry to the full moon,

“I yearn to touch you!”

She covers herself with a cloud.

I scream to the full moon,

“I love you!”

She sets in a blaze of red.

Janet Ruth is president of the Michigan College English Association. She has published four poetry books: Nature’s Olympics (Wipf and Stock, 2021), Exodus (WordTech Editions, 2014), Folk Concert: Changing Times (Anaphora Literary Press, 2012), and Traffic Stop (Finishing Line Press, 2011). The University of Missouri Press published her scholarly book, Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama (1990). Fictive Press published Heller’s middle-grade chapter book about sibling rivalry, The Passover Surprise (2015, 2016). Her children’s book about bullying, How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale, 2006; 6th edn. 2018), has won four national awards. Her website is https://www.janetruthheller.com