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 BaileyMaggie 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.

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