she teaches astronomy

she teaches astronomy with a scalpel
trims the constellations, launches the stars
distributes them in your mind

scissors out the galaxies -- her lace
garments trace on her body
the ancient gradual shadow and shift

of the horizon. her silence
the obliquity of the ecliptic
her glacial frown the precession of aeons

when she deigns to smile at you
once, in a cycle of millennia,
you melt. you beg her not to cast you
out again into orbits of darkness