Natalie Perfetti

About the Author

Natalie Perfetti grew up in Lowell, Indiana, where she first learned to love reading and writing. She studied literature and writing at Millikin University and graduated with honors in spring 2009. Perfetti is currently pursuing a master's degree in literature at Florida State University in Tallahassee. When not immersed in a book, she loves to swim, bike and travel.

Perfetti wrote Moon's Edge as part of her James Millikin Scholarship project, "At the Edges of Traditions: Poems of Our Own," which won the Outstanding Project Award for 2009.

Her tanka have appeared in a number of magazines, including the Tanka Society of America journa,l Ribbons and Dirty Napkin, and Moonbathing, and Modern English Tanka.

Book by Natalie Perfetti

Moon's Edge, by Natalie Perfetti, illustrated by Laramie Hutchens. (Decatur, IL.: Bronze Man Books, 2008). 38 pages, 9 x 6, saddlestitched. ISBN 978-0-9787441-0-6. $12.00 and $2.50 postage from the publisher at <http://www.bronzemanbooks.com> or by mail from: Bronze Man Books, Millikin University, 1184 W. Main, Decatur, IL 62522.

Sample

summer heat
my eyes stray
towards your abs
the clinging drops
of pool water

                           •

                                     clouds glide
                                     over the naked moon
                                     beside you
                                     I slowly trace the circles
                                     of my breasts

                           •

rain water pools
in a fallen leaf
your tongue traces
a trail of goose bumps
down my neck

                           •

                                     clouds obscure
                                          the moon'ed edge
                                               the sleepy crescents
                                          of your eyelashes
                                     my unfilled desire