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Orbital

NICOLETTE RATZ

            I’ll start again— 

slower this time

 

            with less

                        lying. 

 

A circle over time 

                         is a spiral.

 

             I pull a spider up 

from the shower drain

 

             to rest 

                         and find my spirit. 

 

             I walk circles—

slower each time

 

                        around a moon

passing the crater 

 

            of my body

and rocks carved:

 

             you’ve been here before—

                                      as if to say

go somewhere else—

                          but 

 

             there is nowhere else 

to go.

Nicolette Ratz (she/her) is a Wisconsin-raised poet, naturalist, and MFA candidate in creative writing at Oregon State University. She uses poetry to explore, unearthing remnants of the self in bird calls, dreams, and ice. Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in The Citron Review, Ghost City Review, Bramble, Cider Press Review and The Meadow. 

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