The Glory and the Dark Sky Gegenschein

Ah, the mapless, lyric

Pilgrimage of the mind!

It’s just the kind of phrase

One can flourish in print

(And in prose!) only if

One’s been to at least four

Continents carrying

A book by Anne Carson.

From the passenger jet

Window overlooking

Well-mapped, unlyrical

Hegemonies of fact,

One might spot the Glory

In the reflecting clouds

Opposite to the sun.

Down here it is too dark

For that, but on rare nights

So dark, in fact, a glimpse

Of more than just the stars,

More than our galaxy,

A back splatter of sun

From behind Earth, thrown off

Interplanetary

Dust particles, will show

The so-called Countershine.

You can see where this goes

Past the shrines in your mind.