Illustration by Tim Robinson.
To see where the moon melts over the garden,or where the bats flit, or where the air sweetens
with pollen and moth-frenzy, I recommend a night walk to discern the perfect patch for it.
Under this glow, we could all use a distraction—dig with a silver shovel and choose colors that swoon
and moan under our satellite: dusty pinks, baby blue, lavender, white, and butter yellow gems
unfurl at dusk until dawn. Sometimes moonflowervining over trellis looks like a waterfall
out of the corner of your eye. So many to choose from: evening primrose, night-blooming jasmine, heliotrope,
tuberose, 4 o’clocks, lambs’ ear, astilbe, calla lily, white clematis,fairy candles, periwinkles, and you can even launch snowballs
in summer with creamy oak hydrangeas. Turn off the hiss and whirr from man-made lights and walk the night,
walk the grass, the fence line, let your boot crackle overpebble and stick bits. Careful if skunks shuffle over to see what
all the fuss is about. Don’t tussle with weeds. If you set your shovel down, skunks won’t bother you at all.
And on the off chance they do, at least the spray mightsizzle like stars. Bats swoop and fly erratic, but birds
Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets.
Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.
As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war.
In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth.
The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more.
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glide between wing flap—that’s how you can tell what flutters across a lake moon. If you make a moon garden,
even the dark lapping of water under a duck-shush of wavewon’t be louder than the silver in your own bright yard.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil