In the olden days, women made whole planets of their problems.
Intrigued, the men sent probes, but the probes came back red.
What horror is this? cried the men. Back, beast, back!
So the women went back to the worlds they’d created,
ashamed of themselves and determined not to feel anything again,
but as long as they were on their planets, they were in pain.
They rusted like tinmen. They filled and emptied like trash.
At night, they dreamed they were pomegranates ripping open,
a thousand teardrops full of teeth. They thought they’d never escape,
but five days later a spaceship came to take them home.
From Earth, their planets looked so small, so insignificant.
They watched them disappear into deep space, forgetting
that all things must orbit. Each month, the planets returned.
They could sense them in the rising tides.
This selection comes from the book, Life on Dodge, available from Brain Mill Press. Purchase your copy here! Our curator for this selection is Alex DiFrancesco.
Rita Feinstein is the author of the poetry chapbook Life on Dodge (Brain Mill Press, 2018). Her work has appeared in Grist, Willow Springs, and Sugar House, among other publications, and has been nominated for Best of the Net and Best New Poets. She received her MFA from Oregon State University. Twitter handle: @RitaFeinsteinAlex DiFrancesco is a multi-genre writer who has published work in Tin House, The Washington Post, Pacific Standard, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The New Ohio Review, Brevity and more. In 2019, they published their essay collection Psychopomps (Civil Coping Mechanisms Press) and their novel All City (Seven Stories Press), which was a finalist for the Ohioana Book Awards. Their short story collection Transmutation (Seven Stories Press) is forthcoming in 2021. They are the recipient of grants and fellowships from PEN America and Sundress Academy for the Arts. They are an assistant editor at Sundress Publications.
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