Chant

7 planets align tonight:

There's Mars full of conflict,

Venus bauble bright,

Jupiter looking small,

Thought he wants to be big--

Those orbs over my head can't see

Wandering people, migrating birds,

Or hear self-talk

I have an alcove in my chest

That holds my heart strangely

Like an altar-- and I tend its

Reverberating ledge--

Everyone has this grotto,

Too, inside--

I press my fingertips whorled 

And domed upon my neck

To feel a beat--

Such sounds are pulsing everywhere

Within our rubbling home

7 planets align tonight:

Mercury has gold shoes,

Saturn's dour even with ringlets,

Uranus was deposed by young'uns,

Neptune rules superheated seas--

Those planets are so small they look

Like tear duct crusts

I have an alcove in my chest

That holds my heart strangely

Like an altar-- and I tend its

Reverberating ledge--

Everyone has this grotto

Too, inside--

I press my fingertips whorled

And domed upon my neck,

Feel signaling notes--

Heretherethennow

Backforthnearfar

A chant of no divide

Laura Stickney 2025

Notes:

alignment of 7 planets took place

on February 28, 2025

engraving of planetary system of

Copernicus, 1855