Karen Mandell

LEAVING THE DINING ROOM

Sometimes your constellation comes together just right.
Your mood (not too bad), the snow clouds, the fact that you’d been standing
in the teachers’ dining room far too long with your coat on,
held up in conversation so that the nape of your neck
is limned with sweat:    your stars.
And then you walk out and the air is just chilly enough to cool you off
and snow is falling in fat clumps and you breathe them in: more stars to shoot
off and join the others.
A lousy mood and you won’t notice the full moon
behind the scrim of thick air,
a good mood and it doesn’t matter.
It’s a fine balance and you’ve got it.
On the drive home, the radio announcer
says to look up at the brightest moon of the year --
if the sky where you live is clear enough.
The sky isn’t clear enough where you live;
it’s overcast and damp, just perfect,
and the heavens stream by
and none of the stars falls out of place.

Location:	Needham, Massachusetts
Occupation:	Professor at Mount Ida College
Email:	karenmandell@hotmail.com
Publications:	Doubledare Press, Samsara Quarterly, Slow Trains, Poetry Motel, All Things Girl, etc.
Books:	Repairs and Alterations

- April 2002 - For C.C. and Mr. Shaman Midnight at the Hot Springs A Rebeginning Things that are Left at K-mart, According my Dream on Wednesday Little Shadows Anonymity Domestic Leaving the dining room Coup The New Gynecologist Dreaming of Grandma Anastasia Gathering vodka. - Stirring's Best Nature Poems - Rodin's Stare Attrition Hither and Yon Grace at the Top of the Food Chain Dear Alaska fraser river, december