Momma Dwarf . . . , Tracing Snowflakes

Momma Dwarf Has Another Child

As if being slapped around and

downgraded wasn’t enough, the “fat asteroid,”

Pluto, has another moon—

barely big enough to spin, yet

pulling weight around her momma’s

midriff. They have named her

S/2011 P1, but call her P4 for short.

(All the good family names were taken.) Caught

on spy camera playing

between her two closest siblings,

nary a squeak.

She makes it a quartet.

Portraits provided courtesy

of Hubble Studios.

-

Tracing Snowflakes

My wife is pregnant again,

and I am watching her

as she irons the coarse weaves of my cloak.

I am trying to write, feverishly.

I am Doctor Yuri Zhivago,

and I am in self-imposed exile,

tracing snowflakes on the window.

I am dreaming of Lara.

The Bolsheviks have raided the city

and have purged the souls of the people.

The personal life is dead in Russia.

History has killed it.

I have had my fill of bloodshed.

I have looked at death with wild eyes.

I am coming home to Tonya,

to Lara—

                       

I am coming home. The key

is still where she left it.

-

"Momma Dwarf Has Another Child" and "Tracing Snowflakes" were included in Issue #2 of Vector Press, a hard-copy poetry journal in its first year of publication.

Eric