Eros as asteroid
        "The following observations of Eros were made with the 40-cm. (Clark), equatorial telescope
        of the Washburn Observatory."—G.C. Comstock, "Observations of Eros," 1901

When I look at love through a telescope,
I see Psyche, Eros's largest crater,
three miles across. You remember the story:

the most beautiful daughter, Venus's jealousy,
an arrow's mistake, the lover who only appears
at night and never shows their face, an oil burn,
Persephone's beauty in a box.

I draw sky charts by hand to find you.
I look for you in every darkness.
I make the following observations of Eros:
bruises, the marks your fingers left on my thighs,
look like the sky at the end of the night.

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Copyright © 2021 Julia Koets All rights reserved
from Southern Indiana Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission