Poem: "The Best Thing to Do"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the October 5, 2021 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from ng_moonmoth and rix_scaedu. It also fills "The best thing to do is always to follow your greatest desire." square in my 10-1-21 card for the Fall Festival Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the Moon Door series.


"The Best Thing to Do"


The matter of the moon complicated
some people's love lives more than others.

Those who already had partners --
Alexandria with Everett and
Felice with Harry -- had
an easier time coping with
the changes of the moon.

The lesbian and bisexual ones
at least had a reasonable chance
of finding some companionship among
the Women's Chronic Pain Support Group,
even if Randie was shy, shy, shy, about
approaching Hilla in that manner.

Kaisa and Mika had managed
to get together, though. That held
good potential for both of them.

It was harder on the ones who
were straight, unpartnered, and
would have to figure out how
to find a boyfriend who could
handle lycanthropy without
spilling the beans everywhere.

Lorina at least was working
as an administrative assistant
at the local college, and had
an assortment of cute men
expressing interest in her.

The werewolf thing would
be awkward, of course, but
perhaps not insurmountable.

"Can you even call it straight
anymore, if it's a werewolf with
a human guy?" Sigfrieda said.

"That depends," Hill mused.
"Do you want a guy, a human,
or a werewolf? If you only care
about the gender, that's straight.
If you care about lycanthropy,
then that adds another aspect."

"I don't know," Sigfrieda said.
"I'm not sure what would be
the best thing to do here."

"The best thing to do is always
to follow your greatest desire,"
Soma said. "Be true to yourself."

"That's important," Hilla said. "It's
not good to ignore your needs,
or you can wind up lonely and
skin-hungry. As a werewolf,
that undermines your control."

Some of the pack had merged
back into the mainstream, more
or less, while others preferred
to sniff around the fringes.

All of them connected with
each other, though, building
on the old support group,
which helped them to cope.

"Well then, I'm kind of leaning
toward werewolf," said Sigfrieda.
"It would avoid a lot of pitfalls that
could come with a human boyfriend,
and unlike Lorina, I'm not anywhere
that I have men falling all over me."

"Then I'll try reaching out to
Grandmothers Moon,"
said Hilla. "They may
know of werewolves
looking for romance."

"Thanks," said Sigfrieda.
"I think it's worth a try."