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
With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.
As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.
The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.
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Onward,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation
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