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DANI COUTURE


The Rusty Toque | Issue 12 | Poetry | June 30, 2017

Report on the Bright Spots on Ceres

 
We’re speculating on our speculations.
         Bright spots. Plumes of ice? We’ll know

once we draw in closer. Our cyclops Dawn.
         There’s rumour that within months, Ceres’s

status will change. A Houston girl who turns
         sixteen. The debut of ninety-nine cents


become a single dollar. Come official word,
         a thousand children will be primed to string

floss and foam additions to the world’s solar
         system mobiles. They’ll learn it’s okay

to admit others were wrong. And will
         be wrong again. We’re still smarting over Pluto.

Our internal mnemonics refuse alteration. How
         many times do I have to tell you

you never stop loving someone. In Switzerland,
         versions of us are smashing microscopic

 
holes into the known universe with the idea
         that they, like us, will radiate
 
and die in short time. I sent them a letter
         to say the platypus has poisonous spurs


and the huntsman spider is mostly harmless.
         I've done my part. Come Friday, look

to see if the lights go out or burn brighter. For now,
         textbook pages tremble as each letter dilates

 
to accommodate what we hope for against
         what we need to hope for. The mechanical failure


of our best pitch set forth on a slow drift.  
         We’ve breached the hearth
 
of the original thought. What was it I needed to do?
         I can’t recall what it was I once thought.

Fly-by


Stand at the sharp end of a shark’s tooth
of beach, inch back as tidal waters dull the point.
You split the tall grass and retreat.
Downriver, a voice. I think this is too far,
to unseen companions. Ticks, small
as the graphite tip long buried
in your palm, constellate your legs.
Two days until Pluto. The small
have an invested interest in the small.
You are on vacation and reading
about Lyme disease. New reports
on Pluto. Daily, teenagers shore up.
Hexagons and a whale’s tail.
They strip and dress driftwood
with triangles of wet Lyrca. Unlit
Jack-O-lantern eyes. Yesterday, a local
asked, Do you realize you use pronouns
when you talk about spacecraft?
Inquire after ticks. The ounce of cremains
aboard the probe. Nine years, three billion
miles, the afterlife of Tombaugh’s
ashed eye. A text to an outdated question
blinks awake. All good. Just revelry.
Open your computer, type Define
revelry. An issue with constant values
and constant invalidation of facts.
Define fact. The dwarf’s dwindling
atmosphere, five natural satellites.
Etymology tick. From a window, watch
a girl swim to the closest island.
Don’t worry, a boy yells. Not enough salt
for sharks. To the tick to the bird
to the girl, I whisper, Dogfish.
And something about love. ​
DANI COUTURE is the author of three books of poetry and the novel Algoma (Invisible Publishing). Sweet (Pedlar Press) was nominated for the Trillium Book Award for Poetry and won the ReLit Award for poetry. Her most recent book is YAW (Mansfield Press). 
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  • Home
    • Issue 1 >
      • Creative Nonfiction: 1
      • Fiction: 1
      • Screenwriting: 1
      • Poetry: 1
      • Contributors: 1
    • Issue 2 >
      • Visual Art: 2
      • Fiction: 2
      • Poetry: 2
      • Masthead: 2
      • Contributors: 2
    • Issue 3 >
      • Poetry: 3
      • Visual Art: 3
      • Comics: 3
      • Fiction: 3
      • Reviews: 3
      • Masthead: 3
      • Contributors: 3
    • Issue 4 >
      • Prose: 4
      • Poetry: 4
      • Reviews: 4
      • Visual Art: 4
      • Contributors: 4
      • Masthead: 4
    • Issue 5 >
      • Nonfiction Kathy Acker & McKenzie Wark
      • Drama: 5
      • Prose: 5
      • Poetry: 5
      • Film: 5
      • Comics: 5
      • Reviews: 5
      • Visual Art: 5
      • Video & Sound: 5
      • Masthead: 5
      • Contributors: 5
    • Issue 6 >
      • Poetry: 6
      • Prose: 6
      • Reviews: 6
      • Film: 6
      • Visual Art: 6
      • Masthead: 6
      • Contributors: 6
    • Issue 7 >
      • Film: 7
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      • Poetry: 7
      • Reviews: 7
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    • Issue 8 >
      • Poetry: 8
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    • Issue 9 >
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    • Issue 10 >
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    • Issue 11 >
      • Poetry: 11
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      • Masthead: 11
    • Issue 12 >
      • Poetry: 12
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      • Masthead: 12
    • Issue 13 >
      • Poetry: 13
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      • Nonfiction: 13
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      • Reviews: 13
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      • Masthead: 13
  • About
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