In order to view this poem as the author intended it to appear, we suggest reading it on a computer screen or in the landscape orientation on your phone.

Tonight these particular stars
Penelope Scambly Schott

have paused above my back yard.
Someone on an unknown planet
could be watching me recline

at my ease in this chaise longue,
with my bare toes pointing up
to the top star of Cassiopeia’s chair.

If I lift my left foot high enough
I can almost clutch that star
between my big toe and the next.

Who just said That’s impossible?
Just this afternoon I leashed my dog
to the wavery string of a spider web.

—
Penelope Scambly Schott is a past recipient of the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. She lives in the small town of Dufur, Oregon (population: 635) and writes about Dufur and everything else. She teaches workshops in Dufur and she and her husband host poetry readings in Portland. Recent books include On Dufur Hill, Sophia and Mister Walter Whitman (co-written with her dog Sophia), and her newly published Waving Fly Swatters at Angels.

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