A Cosmology
POETRY
by Jeff Mock
This constellation of soup stains
Tells the tale of the ladle
And its travels. The salt shaker,
Overturned, spills out
An asteroid belt around
The pepper. A spoon escapes
Gravity, and the bowls eclipse
The plates, which bodes
Well—or ill, depending
On the queen’s astrologer. Now,
At my daughters’ bedtime,
We draw the curtains, darken
The sky, and there is no
Moon tonight except
In the stories I tell them
Of the small things in our lives.
Jeff Mock is the author of Ruthless, a collection of poetry published by Three Candles Press. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The Georgia Review, New England Review, North American Review, The Southern Review, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. He directs the MFA program at Southern Connecticut State University and lives in New Haven, Connecticut.
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