by Rebecca Fremo
Waiting for the Orionids
I shiver on my lawn chair,
straining to find Orion’s belt,
but this night, too, disappoints.
I wonder what it means when
clouds constantly fill the skies,
obscuring meteor showers
and Northern Lights, foiling the best
laid plans, even spoiling our solar eclipse?
It’s been a stormy year, to be sure.
I have learned a valuable lesson: never
depend upon what science deems
a sure thing. It’s a thin line
between physics and a Farmer’s Almanac;
NOAA’s predictions are hard to discern
from Les Propheties of Nostradamus.
Now that we know that there are no facts,
we might take stargazing advice from tea leaves
or a crystal ball. Why wait for the Orionids,
the Perseids, or even that blue moon?
Surely the sky has already fallen. Now is the time
to simply mine the night for metaphors.
***
Gone Missing
The day I went missing nothing
seemed out of the ordinary.
I went to work,
cooked the meals, paid some bills.
tucked children into bed,
But when I looked down
my right hand was gone.
Left in its place
lay a foreign thing,
wrinkled and blemished.
I missed that hand.
I used up all my longing
just wishing it back,
and I was left
with no desire
for anything
in this world.
***
Moving this Body
On the steps
in the gym,
a toad among
princesses,
I will myself
up on tiptoes
to strengthen
the calf whose
Herculean task
is to support
the rest of me.
I am what
folks once
called “sturdy.”
Big-boned.
I must work
to wedge myself
in here, to find
a place where
my body fits.
Fancy machines
and yoga mat
belong only
to the shapely
I am a troll.
I lurk beneath
a dank stairwell,
in the nether-world
between the elite
top floor, with its
gleaming weights
and sleek physiques,
and the well-traveled
bottom one, where
elders walk the track.
I count calf-raises
by tens. I pant.
I become automatic.
I cannot feel
the impulse
to move.
One moment
I stand, my heels
dangling
over the stair;
then my feet
arch, heels lift,
and everything
simply extends.
About the painter: Eric Sorensen is a medical student and artist who loves painting, drawing, and photography. After college he studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. Image: Painting, mixed media on panel (2014), part of a series exploring the unexpected textures that arise when contrasting materials come together.
