[Four centuries ago this month]
Four centuries ago this month,
Galileo discovered Ganymede,
the fourth moon of Jupiter
or rather his Sagittarius moon discovered the moon,
which is such a Sagittarius moon thing to do, being comforted, as it is,
by notions of expansion. Jasper is new but
you can see it already in his clenched fists & wide open eyes & longing
to discover. The scorpion child
has the moon in Sagittarius too, but if the moon links us to our moment
of birth, then what does this say about me? Galileo
at least lived up to his moon. Ganymede
is made up of metallic iron, rock, and ice. I too have a complex
geological history. A mother is the largest satellite in any given
solar system. Ganymede disguised as an eagle traveled to Olympus
& became the cup-bearer for the gods. You looked a great-horn owl
in its yellow eyes the way I look in your eyes when I bring you milk
at night. Bright dark rays surround phantom craters we call
palimpsests
RACHEL FEDER is an assistant professor of English and literary arts at the University of Denver. She is the author of a poetry chapbook, Words With Friends (dancing girl press, 2014), a book-length serial poem, Bad Romanticisms (forthcoming from Astrophel Press, 2018), and a hybrid work,Harvester of Hearts: Motherhood under the Sign of Frankenstein (forthcoming from Northwestern University Press, 2018).