Labor as an Exotic Vacation

By Amanda Moore

It's #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIM Every Day's archives!

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Pretend it was a different adventure: 
we traveled in our Chrysler down 
8 Mile Road as if in a dinghy 
gliding from the bright layer cake of yacht
toward an undiscovered port. Pretend
we were prepared for the awkwardness 
of being foreign, of seeking flimsy familiarity
and the perfect snapshot to send home. 
We pictured white sheets and hand-holding, 
new scenery and our faces changed.

But really it was like the tropics in July: sweaty
and panting, private and primal. 
Paradise to one traveler is often hell for another, 
so I won’t bore you with the hours passed
watching the ocean swell and retreat, 
the tall grasses bend and part in the wind
and some crazy, hooting monkey pulling itself up and down 
impossibly straight tree trunks.
When we left at last we had a souvenir,
a golden idol shaped by heat 
and meant to be worshipped.
 

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"Labor as an Exotic Vacation" from Requeening by Amanada Moore. COPYRIGHT YEAR ©2021 by Amanda Moore. Courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.

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Amanda Moore’s debut collection of poetry, Requeening, was selected for the National Poetry Series by Ocean Vuong and was published by Ecco in 2021. It was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award and featured in Oprah's O Magazine Favorite Things issue. Her poems, essays, and translations have appeared in journals and anthologies, including Best New Poets, ZZYZVA, Catapult, Ploughshares, and LitHub. A high school teacher who also leads poetry workshops and freelance edits and teaches, Amanda lives near the beach in San Francisco, California with her husband and daughter. More at amandapmoore.com.

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• 3/6 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Keetje Kuipers / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free

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