This selection, chosen by guest editor Layla Lenhardt, is from In the Cosmic Fugue by Jocelyn Heath (Kelsay Books 2022).
Syzygy
Uluru, Australia
We woke at three to catch the sunrise.
What mysteries sleep beneath this sand
as day phosphoresces at the horizon’s edge?
A late crescent and star align over the rock,
point to secrets of the desert sand.
What do I think I’ll find here?
When star and crescent align
over Uluru, when I can’t look away,
do I think that here I’ll find
some truth? Far from home, in the night sky
over Uluru? I can’t look away:
three bodies fixed in orbit’s stasis.
Far from home, in the night sky, truth
in constellations comes human-made
from bodies fixed in orbit. Is stasis
what we’re looking for—
our lives made clear like constellations?
I woke at three. I wait for sunrise
wondering what I’m looking for, or if I’ll find it
phosphorescing at the horizon’s edge.
Jocelyn Heath is an Associate Professor in English at Norfolk State University. Her first poetry collection, In the Cosmic Fugue, came out in November 2022. Other creative writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Crab Orchard Review, Poet Lore, Sinister Wisdom, Flyway, and Fourth River. She is an Assistant Editor for Smartish Pace.
Layla Lenhardt (she/they) is an American poet. She is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the (currently on hiatus) national literary journal 1932 Quarterly. Her essays, poems, short prose, and interviews have been published across various types of media, including a pickle jar, a post card, and a bathroom stall in Dublin. She is a 2021 Best of the Net Nominee and was a judge for Poetry Super Highway’s Annual Contest in 2022. Her first full-length poetry collection, Mother Tongue, was published by Main Street Rag Publications (2023). She is a 2022 alumna of the SAFTA residency. 
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