Issue 23
Fall 2020
Name an Asteroid
Maggie Blake Bailey
Orbits are overrated.
The idea we should trace a path,
turn like a wheel, like a gear.
Better to streak,
to be charted in fractions,
equations that rattle the sky
and end in footnotes—
uncertain approximation.
We know and name our planets
and the list is only shrinking.
But asteroids are legion,
tracing sparks thrown from a bonfire
on these nights that only get darker.
They burn through the skin of the clouds
until I name the last I see for you.
About the Author
Maggie Blake Bailey has poems published or forthcoming in Rust + Moth, Foundry, A-Minor Magazine, and elsewhere. Her full-length debut, Visitation, is available from Tinderbox Editions, and her chapbook, Bury the Lede, is available from Finishing Line Press. She lives in Atlanta with her husband, two young children, and two goofy golden retrievers. For more work, please visit www.maggieblakebailey.com or follow her @maggiebbpoet on Twitter.