How to Moth celebrates the joys and the griefs of a life of loving wine, women, and song. Working in both established forms and musical free verse, Hailey Leithauser takes us from slovenly blondes to tipsy milkmaids to Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, from pink peignoirs to beds made from burlap sacks, a salver of oysters to a nun's unset table, a fried surfer dame to the person from Porlock, and running throughout it all, the undeniable and unyielding urge to take a mad bite of the moon.