Like constellations spotted in a pond
the turtle carries on its back 13 moons on outer basal grey.
28 days, in small scutes brightly colored, in radiated patterns.
We hold the sky in our minds. Place my body on the highest
standing tree, so I can see when light breaks what is broken.
The weight of us: in pancake, eastern box. Hingeback.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 26, Issue 3.
Kathleen Hellen is the author of three full-length poetry collections, including Meet Me at the Bottom, The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin, and Umberto’s Night, which won the poetry prize from Washington Writers’ Publishing House, and two chapbooks. Featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily, her work has been nominated multiple times for Best of the Net and the Pushcart. She is the recipient of the James Still Award, the Thomas Merton prize for Poetry of the Sacred, and poetry prizes from the H.O.W. Journal and Washington Square Review.
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