Wartime Astronomy Suicide bombers attacked a market in Iraq plenty will be happening in the night sky this year Slices of eggplant arrived before us blood from the victims marinating shiny olives A quadruple conjunction will leave planets splayed across the night sky just as you begin to reveal your theory of chords and cuisine In Syria children are crying the term “supermoon” isn’t actually in scientific lexicon Then we both pause watch as ouzo turns milky with the addition of ice Their homes destroyed by barrel bombs Earth interceding to plunge the lunar body into blood red shadow Here at home in the amber viscous light sage is the bringer of dreams you say Revealing the sun’s ghostly corona but the path of totality is entirely inaccessible As the sun ambles toward sleep this is what we hope for Copyright 2021 by @usan Notar
Writer’s Statement:
The poem is based on two of my previous ones—Sage—which was published in Joys of the Table, An Anthology of culinary verse (2015), and Late Afternoon, February, which appeared in NoVA Bards, 2017. The article I drew material from was in the Washington Post Health and Science section January 26, 2021, and was entitled “The Top Astronomical Events for 2021.”
Susan Notar has flown in helicopters over Iraq and makes a mean buerre blanc sauce. She gardens with abandon and believes in the healing properties of herbs. Her work has appeared in a number of publications including Gyroscope, Written in Arlington, The Bridgewater Review, Penumbra, Antologia de Poems Alianza Latina, and forthcoming in Artemis, and Burningword.
30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review
I liked Susan Notar’s poem, Wartime Astronomy. The title really caught my attention. The poem is refreshingly different than most poems I read these days, due the writer’s first hand experience. Thank you for writing it.