Astrolabe by Marianne Tefft

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Astrolabe (after 10th C. astronomer Mariam Al-Astrulabi)
by Marianne Tefft

Before I became a woman whose gaze reached toward infinity
I walked hand in hand with my father in the fragrant market
Fingers interwoven like the knots of my mother’s rug
Eyes carefully fixed on the potholed street
That I would not lose my way 
Among the spires that sliced the clouds
Maybe you do not know  
My father named me for the sea and ancient river
That cradle the once-shining city of my birth
Among all the drops that fill the oceans of the world
I always knew I was beloved
For even as a child I was allowed 
To hold the Universe in my hands
And look beyond the circumscribed fate of those 
Who would become our daughters
Toward the place where you can read my name
Indelibly written among the stars

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Hear Marianne Tefft recite the poem on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast:

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