An astrologer examines
the luminaries governing
her love life only to find

by Shannan Mann

an axe of stars
to slash your heart

I have an axe
with hearts gashed

mashed into a blade
of stars so dark

they resemble caves
in Mars my axe gnashes

the red planet pockmarked
with craters and canyons

my heart of stars laxes
our inchoate equators

mine a black hole
yours an asteroid belt

axed up stars coaxed
into rhythm & zoom

through solar wind
& blooms of nebulae

what does the zodiac
of this flame speak

an umbra of old lovers
catching on gravity

an axial tilt
foreboding intrigue

Shannan Mann is an Indian-Canadian writer, mother to a two year old daughter, and a full-time student. She has been awarded the Palette Love and Eros Prize, Foster Poetry Prize, and Peatsmoke Summer Contest. She was a finalist for the Rattle Poetry Prize, Pacific Spirit Poetry Prize and Frontier Award for New Poets. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Rattle, Ocotillo Review, Strange Horizons, Humber Literary Review, Deadlands and elsewhere. You can find her here.