PATH
PATH OF TOTALITY PATH OF LUNACY
1,035 stand in line U of T astronomers with beady
eyes caution us: DO NOT look into the sights of
the sun These glasses bestow immortality but only
for those who know the difference between the waste
+ the organic bins
On a loud speaker a professor blares: You bastards killed
the Boreal forests + now you love the universe? Eclipse
glasses are x-ray vision for those born between 1941+1957
Solar eclipse porn From the sublime to fried Mars bars + a
muscled young man wearing pink Jockeys who begs to give me
a sports massage ( I was born within the cut off dates)
I walk among the sweating soulless at the CNE Many wear the
eclipse glasses but do not look at the sun Many more are bleating
+ eating huge quantities of cheese curds + gravy I watch the celestial
wonder +know that the next time it occurs I will be out of here which
makes me want to throw caution to the wind
I enter the food court +find a vat of gravy with a pump handle I slather
it on Dogs follow me along the path of totality We are here for what
amounts to a few hours a day at most I am reluctant to let the eclipse go
The first among a list of lasts But the gravy smells so good +there will be
puddings +tequila when I get home
__
We feel around making sense of the terrain, our own new limbs,
Bumping up against a herd of bodies until one becomes home.
(Tracy K. Smith Life On Mars Pulitzer Prize)
End of Summer 2017 ..hit the road jack..