An Updated Constellation by Kevin Casey

​An Updated Constellation

It’s a pearlescent scribble I’ve traced for myself-
       affixed within its net are caught a thousand stars.

And while this luminous stain assumes far more
       than its share of night, and of my day, it resists

all augury, knows nothing of the future, denies
        any notion of destiny or fate. Instead, it casts

a backward glance along the lonely zodiac -
        outlining loss and flaws, it maps a wistful path

toward regret, glowing in celestial
        self-reproach as its declination diminishes.



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Bio: Kevin Casey is the author of And Waking... (2016), and the chapbooks The wind considers everything-- (2015) and For the Sake of the Sun (2016). His poems have appeared recently or are forthcoming in Rust+Moth, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Chiron Review, and Ted Kooser's syndicated column “American Life in Poetry.” For more, visit andwaking.com.