I am not a religious person
but it happens like this every time
today it was Venus
pinned to the sky at dawn
like a fallen ornament
and I am suddenly unmoored
by the reminder
of our solar system
which launches a breathless
inventory of other things
like hole punches and minivans
and Halloween and that boy
who plays stand-up bass
with a kind face
on a mean street corner
and there I am
as the sun swells
on the edge of the lake
with a conviction
that it can’t all
be shrapnel
that something intelligent
lives in between
the noise.