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A Hard Time of It (Poem by Kathryn Nevin)

Alex Constantine - February 2, 2015

A Hard Time of It

By Kathryn Nevin

It’s a gibbous moon.
The astronauts are out tonight.
Perfecting their craft, fixing
frayed patches, hammering
into the universe in defiance.
I’m turning back,
an illegal move in the middle
of a lonely road,
all windows rattling in the cold.
The faulty heater flickers
off and on.
I’ve crossed two state lines
and passed five places
I once called home --
and still that old, empty
pit-of-the-stomach feeling
of being the only one out here
and nowhere to go.
At least the night is clear.
If it weren’t for automotive defects,
complaints of pain
from nearly frozen fingers,
and a few faintly
shifting voices
from the radio, I bet
I could hear them:
Satellites whirring in splendid
congregation, triumphant
in their mission, fixed
in their direction.

Kathryn Nevin is a poet and editor based in Wilmington, Delaware.