Narrated by Ann Thornfield-Long
Rain drums the windowpane;
August sky, a long-term gray.
We’ve looked forward to the promise
of the Perseids. We settle
into our own perigee—content
with our trajectory in this cleft of earth—
packed with all we bring: wind, wine, magic
of our stars. The deluge stops
at midnight, we stretch
onto the glossy street beneath, entangled
mercury vapor lights
costuming our shadows
like circus people with rhomboid, Gumby legs
boogieing down Mars Boulevard.
Our bizarre gloomy twins vanish
in the ghostly radiance of a green fireball
riding the clearing rim of Southern sky,
bristling the hair on Pluto’s back.
Sparks of meteors pass through the Milky Way,
our electron hearts in icy space
warm to red.
BIO: Ann Thornfield-Long, a co-author of Tennessee Women of Vision and Courage, (edited by Crawford and Smiley, 2013), has published poetry in Silver Blade, The Tennessee Magazine, Wordgathering, and other publications. She won the Patricia Boatner Fiction Award (Tennessee Mountain Writers, 2017) for her novel excerpt “The Crying Room.” She was also awarded a Weymouth residency in 2017. She was editor/publisher of her hometown weekly newspaper for six years and is a retired nurse and medical first responder. She is a student of American Sign Language.