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At the Mediation Table

Poetry by ​Cat Dixon

While you drew near-perfect circles

filled with thick asterisks,                   

I doodled boxes and lines, sketched
a street, a neighborhood,

and racked randomly tiny t’s                                                                                                                        
on sidewalks. When I asked


what the circles were, you said
galaxies. Then you glanced

at my sheet. You thought
I was plotting football plays,

and during the break asked
my favorite team. The NY Jets

came to mind—large metal birds
that rocket across the sky,

or the Jacuzzi blasting
sore muscles. I didn’t lie.

I’ve flown over suburbs
that look like cemeteries,

row upon row of squares,
crucifixes strung together

by wire, patches of weed-free
grass, and miniature mourners

disappearing behind doors while
they wonder whose house they will

stay at tonight. You didn’t lie
either. The sublime universe

stretches her sparkling limbs
and she is dazzling—divine.

When our machines touch down
on distant planets, when we mimic

black holes, when we trace her form
onto scratch paper, she slows

her movements like a horse
that is bell-and-hobbled,

and the blaze on her muzzle
glows in the dark. You and I

imagine the ghosts of our
children eavesdropping

on our meetings as they swing in
the big dipper awaiting reunion.

Each time our eyes meet,
you appear to recede.

At this rate, the words remain
obscure and the lawyers unheard.
​

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Cat Dixon

Cat Dixon is the author of Eva and Too Heavy to Carry (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2016, 2014) and her chapbook, The Book of Levinson, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2017. She teaches creative writing part-time at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. She has poems (co-written with Trent Walters) in They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing (Black Lawrence Press, 2018).

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