Winter Stars
Winter drags on – though the stars keep turning time and appearing consolingly on the horizon telling stories to while away long nights.
Coma Berenices
/Suetonius: Titus reginam Berenicen,
cui etiam nuptias pollicitus ferebatur,
statim ab Urbe dimisit invitus invitam[1]
Winter’s late midnight approaches and
faint on the eastern horizon rise
the stars of victorious Ptolemy’s merely human queen
pale and fine as her golden hair’s anxious
thanks shorn for that ancient altar
and snatched into burning permanence
where the whirling tales of careless gods
affably dance the years’ indifferent divinations
<>
300 circumnavigations later her namesake’s
credulous prayers
crashed soundlessly
against the voracious walls
of Titus’ crumbling empire
without astronomy’s cool comfort
[1] ‘Titus, who was even said to have promised marriage to Queen Berenice, immediately sent her away from Rome against both their wishes.’
