Earthworm
There are dark stars in the cool evening
and you fondle them. —Anne Sexton
What astronomy do you study,
each stone a planet like Mercury
or Mars, fixed in your wanderer’s circuit?
Pebbles, so many moons. Sand like the bits
of stuff that compose Saturn’s rings.
Black hole of your universe, spinning
earth into soil, have you learned its lesson
on your turns around its axis,
or must you daily contemplate what is
your fate of grasping and letting go?
By unholding, you convert what you know
into what you don’t, making all things new—
planets, yes, but also the more elementary stuff
that makes up the world. And that’s enough.
—first published in Crannog