venus – other animals

Venus over my shoulder on sharp frozen earth these uncut toes

(First published in Modern Haiku.)

if I’m lucky one day these teeth will shatter Venus

(First published in Bones.)

before this morning just the blank blue

black before the sun fades it back to

the usual but now just feet above

the broken basketball hoop great Jupiter

and greater Venus inches apart and

though I don’t know it now the next

few black mornings in dark blue

cool they will sport in that spot in a

slow silver dance that even without

my glasses warms my hazy blue head