the motions of planets

Amid the stab of night
in a break of winter clouds
I look past constellations to forgotten stars
find Venus waiting beyond sliding glass

I used to own a telescope
the odor of machine oil lubricating its focus
dust on the lens

Once I bought a red filter
forced my old man from the TV to observe an opposition of Mars
never again so close in his lifetime

I took my remarried aunt's new husband
bent him down before Jupiter
the odor of vermouth
two billion light years to Andromeda
repeated in a southern drawl

Summer slipped away
even my Mother learned the motions of planets
it's the only thing I gave her of me to love