Katherine Huang

The Watchmaker Dreams

After John Adams, The Chairman Dances: Foxtrot for Orchestra

the planets
he said
i will have
the planets i made
for dinner
planet means
wanderer
and he wanted
a heart like
the planets
jeweled melons
pirouetting
on the frosted
glass spinner
of the dinner table
spinning in time
to the one planet
he’d saved as a toy
speckled
with people
hustling through
lead-colored
cities when
he wound the key
and a sun rose
oh how he wanted
a planet heart
to chase
his river of a wife
and clutch her
like silk
in the meat
of his hands
whirring whirling
around the room
to the gears
ticking away
in the toy planet
with its figurines
going nowhere
just like
the two of them
a silk sash
perfumed
with jasmine
and freshly
baked bread

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Katherine Huang is a graduate student in genomics and computational biology at UPenn. Her work has appeared in print/online at various places—most recently Pangyrus, West Trestle Review and Sweet Tree Review. When not writing or sciencing, she enjoys dancing and taking naps. You can find her on Twitter @Katabolical.