(In memoriam, Myrielle Z. Falguera)
"Oh, body, be held now by whom you love." - Aracelis Girmay, "Kingdom Animalia" Be as air, lightly passing over these early morning walkers on the periphery, keeping their respectful distance. Be as shadow: rippled underside of leaves, each a kind of reverse halo. Be as whisper or echo, radiating outward through newly emptied spaces: airports, museums, avenues; the Grand Central Terminal where, that November, from the center of the great hall we craned our necks toward its Catalan vaulting. Look for the archer, the bull, the fish and the ram, gold-outlined against cerulean. Look for the goddess with a tiara of stars and two lions tethered to leashes; and the nymph with her billowing cape of stars. Look for the dark spot in the northwest corner, small bandage of dirt and coal left by restorers, collected residue of fumes that rose up through decades to discolor the ceiling. From where you are, look upon the overall pattern which was painted in reverse and so became riddled with error. Directions inter- changed, constellations out of place: really, depictions of how it might look from the perspective of an immortal; or someone with a sense of inscrutable design. * Uranometria, 1603