Satellite

Julia Rose Lewis

Sugar reserve  
as seen in the dessert wine 
it is only a raisin snow.  
The coast  
interferes or poor signals fall.  
The east lies to itself faraway 
minus forty degrees  
means minus forty Fahrenheit and
Celsius otherwise known as cold as
a witch’s teat. Sincerely yours 
the witch thought that I would peak at forty
years. 

The ancient shore 
ritual  
in the sense respectful  
that glitter can not keep itself to
itself like trelliswork.  
I want to outline fields of waves  
for the duration northern summer is
gleaming. I want to outline the kraken
night  
while observations of sun glitter are
revealing  the coasts and narrow straits.  

A hollow within grit  
a greater reserve 
as if it sells itself capillary gravity. 
I follow if a leaf falls  
sinus is an indentation between petal
lobes  in the medical sense a bend or
recess  seen as lulworth and tunu
sinuses. 
Come on 
it is only a platinum moon  
see mercy from a hospital acquired infection. 

Often not  
ferreting out the glitter  
otherwise known as the sinus node 
fretting over waves 
in order to regulate the heartbeat  
seldom the base means wonderful
itself  gray and gravity we say  
wrinkles  
the ferry wife might be filming  
the crista terminalis and the sulcus
terminalis.

The Science

This poem is inspired by the ongoing exploration of Saturn's moon Titan. Titan has liquid hydrocarbon lakes. I was drawn to the ways scientists are learning about its unusual bodies of water using techniques from organic chemistry, oceanography, and astronomy. This poem uses the word sinus as a double entendre, referring to both the geographical features on Titan and the rhythm of the human heart. I am exploring the nature of desire for something impossibly far away as Saturn's moon and someone who has died.  

The Poet

Julia Rose Lewis is the author of three poetry collections: Phenomenology of the Feral (KFS), High Erratic Ecology (KFS), and The Hen Wife (Contraband).  She and James Miller co-authored Strays (HVTN).  She has published six pamphlets, the most recent of which is NAG (Gang Press).

Next poem: Scared Sootless by Chase Watters