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Original Artwork by Marina Hartzell Gallegos

Hostile planet do you care for us


Judith Skillman
Poetry

Days and nights, moon and sun,
storm and drought—all these happen
to the body as well. Now in this
sixth decade I have to ask
as if you too were a person
who could feel the core magnetized,
flowing from your poles, and know
the valley as a depression
where only the cactus rose
grows a little succulence to adorn
a place so dry its only comfort
might be the flatness of the floor.