095;

Space

Moon unfolds like a fan, snaps in, winks out.
In this time you say you haven’t moved,
but a certain wet little planet has spun and spun.
When the plane dips, you hold the arms of the seat.
You say it would make sense to hold
something outside, arms at least,
or a double cumulus handful,
or something higher,
and you wonder about the higher things.
For names abound,
names you don’t have things for.
Recall that the universe
expands slightly more each day,
how each time it rains
the drops are traveling further.
We live in a space
where telescopes impale a moving body
that is stationary in its own way,
as is, for instance, Neptune,
coldest of any planet save Pluto,
whose rings are theoretical
and therefore imaginary,
but nevertheless may spin more quickly
than the body they surround, dressed in winds
and made still by them
and prepared by them
for the faraway naming of seas.

Sarah Manguso