[Four centuries ago this month]

Four centuries ago this month,

           Galileo discovered Ganymede,

                        the fourth moon of Jupiter

                                  or rather his Sagittarius moon             discovered the moon,

which is such a Sagittarius moon thing to do, being comforted,         as it is,

           by notions           of expansion.           Jasper              is new but

you can see it already               in his clenched fists     & wide open eyes     & longing

            to discover.        The scorpion child

has the moon in Sagittarius too,            but if the moon            links us           to our moment

            of birth, then what does this say                     about me?       Galileo

at least            lived up            to his moon.    Ganymede

            is made up of metallic iron,     rock,     and ice.          I too     have a complex

geological history.                   A mother          is the largest satellite                in any given

             solar system.    Ganymede      disguised as an eagle    traveled to Olympus

& became the cup-bearer for the gods.            You looked a great-horn owl

             in its yellow eyes         the way I look in your eyes                  when I bring you milk

at night.             Bright dark rays surround        phantom craters           we call

            palimpsests

 

RACHEL FEDER is an assistant professor of English and literary arts at the University of Denver. She is the author of a poetry chapbook, Words With Friends (dancing girl press, 2014), a book-length serial poem, Bad Romanticisms (forthcoming from Astrophel Press, 2018), and a hybrid work,Harvester of Hearts: Motherhood under the Sign of Frankenstein (forthcoming from Northwestern University Press, 2018).

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