Planets all move eastward

A January 1921 sky map (from the “Review of Popular Astronomy”) overlays Daniel Fabrycky’s 2012 “Kepler Orrery II.”

Chiaroscuro (Light-Dark)

Figure of our solar system and surrounding stars from Kepler’s “Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae” (“Epitome of Copernican Astronomy”).

A still life–

this minor tree
in my backyard
the sudden focus
of all light

behind it,
a tenebrous
curtain of black

and extinguished
stars.