Astronomer

 of my pickaxe, the arc it formed at the crossing you and I were sent to fix—the road cratered on both sides of the tracks, wallowed out by trucks loaded with wheat—  if I could follow my pick’s shadow slicing toward your shadow— dark and wild, gathering weight and speed in the bright June air—and

verb; untangle or unravel something; confuse or complicate (a question or situation); noun: a tangle, cluster or knot   Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down. —Toni Morrison Here, it’s day. There, another sleepless vigil of a fraying burqa. By the time these billowy clouds reach the Hindu Kush,

This piece is part of our Fall/Winter 2020 print issue.