Let the Heavens Turn Around—Elise Meredith Jimison

This poem is from a forthcoming illustrated poetry anthology from Bandersnatch Books called I've Got a Bad Case of Poetry, edited by Rachel S. Donahue and illustrated by Emily J. Person. With 170 poems by 62 poets, this whimsical collection is beautifully designed to foster a love of poetry in the next generation. Back the Kickstarter to help bring this heirloom-quality book to life.

Let the Heavens Turn Around

by Elise Meredith Jimison

Let the heavens turn around
in indefinite spirals, expanding by inches
along the length of their polar symmetry
or scrolling always across your square sight.
Let the ducks fall up like autumn
leaves from the surface of the pond
and notice the irrevocable vector of this:
the drag sweeping each back to trail at the flanks of the flock
and the pressure moving the feathers on the leading edge of the wing.
Let the rabbits multiply softly in dark burrows
and let the cats subtract in silence from the sum, and let
the whippoorwill chant the joy of an infinite series.
Let angels visit us in constants and derivatives,
dropping in full sunlight on our desks as on the branches of trees;
let the geometry of living crystalize loosely,
so that there may be twelve eggs less three,
a soccer ball falling at the same speed as the foot that kicked,
the twoness of socks and lovers.

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Elise Meredith Jimison writes, paints, sculpts, thinks, and occasionally cooks about subjects like conservation ecology, monster theory, the phenomenology of adventure, and what sort of creature keeps eating her marigold plants in the night. She shares a tiny Nashville-area studio with her husband (Jonny, also a writer and illustrator) and son (currently the size of a papaya).

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