Mars Retrograde
Portend this day from that day:
disjointed dreams and pale gold flights.
Open two palms, hinged at thumbs,
to release the final fledgling,
damp-feathered bundle,
trembling with newborn hopes.
Will she fly? Will she?
Out of that pale gold sea
of yesterday. Lay waste
the fields of fire
where now only embers gleam.
A moment of peering
into my own ancient eyes
of so many lives ago,
wondering if I might have missed
a whispered warning, a clue,
a Morse-coded map
tapped with two soft finger pads
into this emptied palm
or with one knuckle
at the third eye between my two
to find its open door,
to have been a better guide
for such a stumbling path.
Copyright 2006 by Zinta Aistars
Zinta Aistars is the author of three books published in the Latvian language and has recently completed a second collection of poetry, Tumbleweed Waltz. She is an editor
for LuxEsto, the Kalamazoo College alumni magazine, and has published
poetry, travel essays, stories, and articles in the United States,
Latvia, England, Sweden, Germany, and Australia. Her work also appears
on many ezines, including Megaera Magazine, Outsider Ink, Boston
Literary Magazine, Ghoti Fish, Ascent Aspirations Magazine, Menda City
Review, Ash Canyon Review, flashquake, River Walk Journal, Poems
Neiderngasse, and many others. She is the poetry editor for Her Circle Ezine, and is co-owner and editor for
The Smoking Poet, a literary ezine for those who enjoy a fine cigar with
fine literature.
