Observation with H. on Kitt Peak

There is only one  
sequence

which means when you plot
the nighttime sky 
with a borrowed star chart

dialed to a month from now 

what you are really mapping 
is whether we’ll be reunited 

or whether we are in  
final stages, Mars-like.

What is shine to us?
Meaning the decision to turn  
or return  
rests with gravity.  

The soft wind pushes us back 

to chest  

together  

toward a broken path 

in fruited juniper. 

AMY SCHMITZ

Amy Schmitz’s collection, Border Crossing, was published in 2018 by the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Quiddity, High Plains Literary Review, Sugar House Review, Kestrel, Borderlands: Texas Literary Review, Poetry International, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from George Mason University.