Two Pieces
Christiana Doucette
The Watcher
It's the way she holds the blossom
between the yellow sunflowers,
cupping it away from his canvas,
her satin hair halo-ed in golden rings.
He cannot see her face. But the grace
of those hands spans space
bending time. A gravitational pull
that does not say whether she will
place a gentle kiss on its disc or
lift it from the pole to orbit
the constellation of suns beside her.
The flower and her hand bend a thousand
long meanings between them. A song
of summer ending, the bending of seasons,
reasons uneven beacon, summers silk sea,
and a pull so strong the universe can be held.
Solstice Great Conjunction
On the longest night
of the darkest year
Jove and his retinue of pale satellites
took counsel
with his immigrant father Saturn
in the southern sky.
Together they lit our darkness
with a beacon eight hundred years unseen
while the half sheathed moon
reflected the hope of dawn
and light at last on the horizon
Christiana has always been partial to Rigel, the double star system below Orion’s belt. She has judged poetry for San Diego Writer’s Festival for the past three years. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies, been set to music by opera composers, and performed on NPR.